A Bacteria That Poops Gold? Not Really-Drudge Link Debunk
I work for a gold refinery. Working with actual precious metals (not investing etc.) are my life long expertise and career. The bacteria is working on gold chloride which contains the gold already. Every gold refiner in the world takes something that contains some gold and produces pure gold. Rocks, jewelry scrap, old electronics…
The bacteria is not making gold as some may think from the headline. It’s separating it. On a macro scale you can do that at home. Put your gold coin in one place and your silver coin in another. That’s what the bacteria is doing on a microscopic scale. The poison they refer to is chlorine. Gold chloride is gold and a form of chlorine. AuCl
It won’t retrieve the global economy from the ditch, but there is a bacteria that consumes a toxic metal to produce pure gold.
Our colleagues over at Slate have produced a video explaining how the super-strong bacteria Cupriavidus metallidurans goes about its precious dirty business:
The script reads, in part:
This microbial magician, named Cupriavidus metallidurans, when placed in a minilab full of gold chloride, a nasty toxin, gobbled up the poison and, in about a week, processed it out as 24-karat nuggets of the precious yellow metal.