In article ,
Malcolm Ogilvie wrote:

In article , Nick Maclaren
writes
In article ,
Malcolm Ogilvie wrote:

Horsetail absorbs gold dissolved in water better than most plants, as much
as 4 ounces per ton of fresh stalk".

If gold dissolves in water, how come one can pan for it in streams?

I don't know its solubility, but there is about 55 pounds dissolved in
a cubic mile of seawater. Water is close to a universal solvent :-)

I'm interested in a method of extraction from a cubic mile of seawater
as I have this (or at least the edge of same) just outside my front
door. Any references?

Rumous has it that there have been a few patents, but the inventors
failed to get financial backing to develop their ideas.

You could try cross-breeding kelp and horsetail :-)

More seriously, one of the most serious of the many crimes that should
be laid at the door of Monsanto is blocking development of the only
likely method of removing heavy metal contamination from large areas
of soil. Quite a few people were interested in breeding plants that
absorb such things, not to sell the metal, but to clean up the soil.
But Monsanto's evil plans got all genetic modification and extreme
plant breeding tarred with the same brush.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.