Has anyone actually heard of the process for extracting ionic gold from sea water?

Question

There is a process that is energy taxing but what is the process

Answer 1

I've never heard of such a process. The concentration of gold ions in sea water is so low that the only way we're ever going to extract it economically will be with genetically engineered organisms. After all, there are only a few parts per million of calcium ions in sea water, but shellfish extract them and make shells of almost pure calcium carbonate. Maybe they could be genetically modified to do the same with other elements. Work is being done right now on biological mining. You develop plants that concentrate the element you want from the soil. Then you harvest it and extract the element. The Dutch have been doing something similar for centuries. When they've built a dike and reclaimed a polder from the sea, they desalinate the soil by planting a type of grass that sucks up the salt, and after harvesting the grass they remove it. After repeating this process a few times, the salt level is low enough to grow ordinary crops.

Answer 2

20 years ago, an Australian company had a patent on a process where fishing nets made from a copper doped polymer were used for fishing. The idea was that the copper would exchange out of the net and be replaced by gold during use - they tried to sell the patent to a company I was working for. The patent had 15 months to run - they wanted a million $. They didn't get it! To the best of my knowledge, the patent has never been commercialised.

Answer 3

Yes, but won't get gold enough even on gallons of sea water you must boil tons of these to have unless a little rock

Answer 4

Electrolysis may work if the potential is correct. However, the yield of gold is probably too low to make it economical. If it wasn't someone would be making a huge amount of cash from it.

Answer 5

See this information and click on the link about Haber.

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2005-01/1107161621.Es.r.html