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BONNIE
Fire-eater
Joined: June 17, 2005
Posts: 2539
Location: Amsterdam/Shanghai
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 Posted:
Nov 21, 2007 - 12:21 PM |
 
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| Post subject: Gold Diggers |
From the Telegraph in UK a couple of days ago -:
Chinese pan for gold in the sewage
By Richard Spencer in Beijing
Last Updated: 1:41am GMT 19/11/2007
A town in southern China is proving that where there's muck, there's gold and silver.
In one of the most extreme signs of China's modern grasp of entrepreneurial possibilities, gold panners are striking deals with jewellery factories to buy the contents of their septic tanks.
Gold and silver filings in the septic tanks are
thought to have washed off workers
The price of precious metals has soared to such record highs on the world's markets that sifting the tanks' contents for scrapings and offcuts has become a profitable business.
A reporter from a Chinese newspaper found a new breed of waste collectors touring the jewellery factories near Daluotang, a township near the city of Guangzhou.
They told him that small processing factories had discovered gold and silver filings in the septic tanks that had either washed off workers' hands and faces or been ingested accidentally.
The collectors were paid to deliver the contents of septic tanks from factories and dormitory compounds. Processors would then sift, pan and finally recycle the tanks.
Contracts depended on the volume of effluent — one building sold the rights to its sewage for 140,000 yuan a year (about £9,000).
A smaller tank fetched 40,000 yuan (£2,500).
"The factories watch over the gold powder produced at each stage of their processing," one man said. "Once, I was carrying some waste water for a boss here, I spilled a little and he began to shout at me for the waste."
Another said: "Because compounds here have mostly been rented out to gold factory workers, people believe the gold and silver powder that gets stuck to hair, skin or even in their stomach eventually settles in the septic tank."
China is profiting from its entrance into a global but uncertain trading system.
The price of precious metals has risen as investors seek a safe haven from the global credit crisis and the long-term fall in the value of the dollar. Gold is trading at nearly £385 an ounce, its highest level since 1980. |
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It is what it is... |
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Magnolia
Board Biatch
Joined: June 01, 2004
Posts: 31672
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Nov 21, 2007 - 12:33 PM |
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talk about a crappy job... |
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Rais
Reacher
Joined: Nov 17, 2006
Posts: 298
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Nov 21, 2007 - 12:47 PM |
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| Magnolia wrote: |
| talk about a crappy job... |
Another form of Black Gold. |
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Magnolia
Board Biatch
Joined: June 01, 2004
Posts: 31672
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Nov 21, 2007 - 12:54 PM |
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p1atl10
Shanghai Royalty
Joined: Mar 18, 2005
Posts: 9047
Location: Shanghai
Status: Offline
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Nov 21, 2007 - 06:04 PM |
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Stop it both of you! |
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Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer.....Dave Barry |
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p1atl10
Shanghai Royalty
Joined: Mar 18, 2005
Posts: 9047
Location: Shanghai
Status: Offline
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Nov 21, 2007 - 06:05 PM |
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I was an a conference call when I read these and started laughing out loud.
Poor Chinese kid that was presenting thought I was laughing at him.... |
_________________
Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer.....Dave Barry |
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queenmab
Post Roaster
Joined: June 07, 2003
Posts: 4541
Status: Offline
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Nov 22, 2007 - 12:20 AM |
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CoffeeHawk_0
Board Deity
Joined: July 14, 2005
Posts: 19020
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Nov 22, 2007 - 04:43 AM |
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leidelaohu
Board Royalty
Joined: June 11, 2007
Posts: 7157
Status: Offline
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| Posted:
Nov 25, 2007 - 02:38 PM |
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| Post subject: Re: Gold Diggers |
| BONNIE wrote: |
| The price of precious metals has soared to such record highs on the world's markets that sifting the tanks' contents for scrapings and offcuts has become a profitable business. |
Stupid sensationalism. I used to do work for a shop that used a lot of gold. Twenty years ago they went to extreme lengths to recapture any gold dust that stuck to the employees. Everyone wore paper suits, masks and hoods which they burned to reclaim the dust. Materials were very carefully accounted for. If these Chinese shops are so dumb they don't take those measures, then of course there will be residue that's worth panning for.
Some of these stories make me think of Young Shanghai's breathless food stories - the ones where they head off down some alley and find - Look ! Oh My ! Noodles ! Good gracious me, here's a new entrepreneurial shop that cooks noodles !! Omigosh, I just can't imagine such a thing in China, of all places !! The Communists sure weren't smart enough to cook noodles, oh no !
People can sure be retarded when they try. |
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