Scientists find gold in city sewers

Gold, platinum and silver could be salvaged from the sewers of Brussels as scientists seek ways of eking out the earth’s dwindling supplies of precious metals.

University researchers in the Belgian capital have succeeded in finding samples of gold in the city’s sewage and hope eventually to collect 10kg, worth about £400,000, and 1kg of platinum every year.

Fresh supplies of metals such as lead, tin, silver, gold and zinc are only expected to last for another 20 years before they become too scarce or expensive to mine. Retrieving the precious metals from sewer water could solve that problem, researchers say, while making sewer sludge safer.