Before going out of your way to becoming a treasure hunter, be sure to note how these bits of gold and other metals are microscopic in size. Going through pipelines and sewage systems, plumbers in Denver might strike the same luck as other plumbing specialists.
Denver Sewers Yield Precious Metals
Although these precious metals are nearly invisible, as they’re even less the width of a single strand of hair, gold, silver, platinum, palladium, copper, and zinc do appear in these sewers. Kathleen Smith, a U.S. Geological Survey geochemist, says how she discovered the particles in treated solid waste in eight wastewater plants, some in Colorado.
Smith is clueless, however, as to where the valuable particles come from. It isn’t just human discharge that goes down into sewage systems — there are a bunch of things flushed down the toilet. She claims that these may come from personal care products such as cosmetics. A study from Arizona State also claims how the combined worth of the metals flushed down the toilets by a million Americans amount to $13 million.
Scientists are determined in making the most of the situation. They acknowledge how this discovery is the first step. Figuring out how to recover these metals in a useful form comes next.
Lucky and Honest Plumbers
In Calgary, two plumbers, Babul and Materi, are astonished as they discover a gold brick as they work on renovating a bathroom. After researching, they believe that the brick they found underneath a tub amounted to $50,000. With this information, they contacted the homeowner who acknowledged ownership of the gold brick. Among other things, they had also unearthed rare Daredevil comics on a previous job.
