Kathmandu. Can you imagine that the world’s vast treasure is hidden in the ocean? This treasure exists in the form of pure gold, which is worth billions of dollars. Scientists estimate that millions of tons of gold have been dissolved in the Earth’s oceans and seas.
Scientists have investigated ways to extract this gold. However, this is not an easy task. For every 100 million metric tons of seawater, there is one gram of gold. The question arises: How can this gold be extracted and will it be possible to extract gold from the sea in the future?
Studies published in Nature and the Journal of the American Chemical Society (2018) suggest ways to extract this gold. But the process is financially complicated. Scientists believe that there are millions of tons of gold in the oceans. According to current estimates, it could be worth $20 billion. It is estimated that 20 million tonnes of gold has been dissolved in the seawater. This gold mining has been discussed repeatedly but no solution has been found.
How did the gold get to the sea?
This gold reaches the ocean through natural processes. One of these processes is soil erosion. This means that gold from rocks and other natural objects slowly leaks into the sea. Rain and rivers slowly erode the rocks. So that some of the gold in them goes to the sea. Hydrothermal vents are also responsible. These occur in the regions where tectonic plates meet. Heat gives out liquids containing soluble minerals, including gold.
How TAG_OPEN_strong_16 is gold extracted from water?
Extracting gold from the sea is an extremely complex process. Gold is found in trace quantities over vast areas. One liter of water contains less than 1 nanogram of gold. It is important to understand that 1 billion nanograms make up one gram. Seawater mining is still a technical challenge. A 1941 study published in the journal Nature proposed an electrochemical method that would cost five times the price of gold.
Another method, published in 2018 in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, describes a sponge-like substance that can absorb gold. However, the challenge remains to scale up this method to profitably extract large quantities of gold.
