Currently, there are many viewpoints suggesting that the oceans are filled with gold; the challenge is how to extract it.
For over a century, scientists have diligently researched ways to obtain gold from the oceans. According to the National Ocean Service, Earth’s oceans contain approximately 20 million tons of gold. This precious metal remains suspended in seawater, but it is noteworthy that the concentration of gold in seawater is very minimal.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) states: “Each liter of seawater contains about 13 parts per billion of gold.” Additionally, there are gold deposits on the ocean floor, but extracting them is far beyond our current capabilities.
However, the allure of gold has led many to explore ways to extract it. Since British chemist Edward Sonstadt discovered gold in seawater in 1872, numerous studies have been initiated.
The First Attempt to “Suck Gold from the Sea” Was a Hoax
The ocean gold mining venture took place in the 1890s. However, it turned out to be a scam. The deception began when Prescott Ford Jernegan from New England, USA, claimed to have invented the “Gold Accumulator.” Specifically, he stated that he could extract gold from seawater through a process involving mercury and specially treated electricity.
Jernegan, along with his childhood friend Charles Fisher, founded the Electrolytic Marine Salts Company. They even managed to attract some potential investors and commenced operations.
These individuals claimed that: “There is enough gold in the waters of Long Island Sound to pay off debts and leave a larger reserve of gold in the Treasury that the Government does not yet possess.” According to the New England Historical Society, by 1898, Electrolytic Marine Salts had raised about 1 million USD in cash from investors.
This precious metal remains suspended in seawater. (Photo: Grunge)
The company opened a gold extraction plant in the remote town of Lubec, Maine, to avoid scrutiny. They tirelessly searched for gold in seawater. A second plant was opened with hopes that Lubec could become a booming gold mining town.
However, in July 1898, everything collapsed, and both Jernegan and Fisher disappeared. According to The New York Times, Jernegan absconded with 80,000 USD. Consequently, the claims of gold extraction turned out to be nothing more than inflated promises.
When the scam was uncovered, hundreds of workers who had come to Lubec were suddenly unemployed, the factory closed, and investors lost all their money. Jernegan fled to Europe with his family, seeking to evade imprisonment, while Fisher went “off the grid.”
This classic scam shattered many people’s “dreams” of finding gold in seawater. Nevertheless, it could not deter curiosity about how to extract this precious metal.
100 Million Tons of Seawater Yield Only 1 Gram of Gold
In 1900, inventor Henry Clay Bull in London applied for a patent for “A Method for Extracting Gold from Seawater.”
By the 1920s, German chemical weapons developer and Nobel laureate Fritz Haber sought to develop a process for extracting gold from the sea. Haber and a team of scientists spent years attempting to refine a method involving centrifugal force and electrochemistry.
Not long after, they realized they had overestimated the potential gold yield in their initial calculations. The project failed. Haber and his team discovered a significant flaw: The cost of extraction would exceed the value of the gold obtained.
An article appeared in the Times in 1941, stating that Professor Colin Fink of Columbia had developed a method for extracting gold from seawater. He even applied for a patent for his process in 1942. The article mentioned that Willard Dow had abandoned his search for gold in seawater “after recovering no more than a gold needle’s worth from a ton of seawater.”
As chemical analysis processes improved throughout the 20th century, the minuscule amounts of gold in seawater were more accurately determined. Consequently, the dream of extracting gold from seawater gradually faded. In 1990, New Scientist published a study indicating that the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans contain “1 gram of gold for every 100 million tons of seawater.”
In 100 million tons of seawater, there is only 1 gram of gold. (Photo: The Motley Fool).
Determining the specific value of such a large volume is challenging, and moreover, gold prices fluctuate continuously. However, as of mid-May 2023, an estimate suggested that one ton of gold could be worth over 57,000,000 USD. At this rate, the gold in the world’s oceans would be valued at over 1.14 quadrillion USD.
This figure sounds enticing, but extraction is not straightforward. Gold is extremely sparse in the vast ocean. Thus, even an Olympic-sized swimming pool contains only a tiny amount of gold.
Currently, there is no cost-effective method for extracting gold from the ocean and making a profit. A study published in Nature in 1941 presented an “electrochemical method” for extracting gold from seawater; however, the cost of this process was five times the value of the gold obtained.
Another study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in 2018 described a material that could function like a sponge, quickly extracting small amounts of gold from seawater, freshwater, and even waste sludge.
This method reportedly could absorb 934 milligrams of high-quality gold in just two minutes. However, scaling it to a level sufficient to be profitable remains extremely difficult. Currently, this technology is only being developed as a means to recover small amounts of gold lost during production processes.
Another aspect to consider is the potential impact on biodiversity and ecosystems. Experts are uncertain about the exact effects of large-scale gold extraction from the sea, but it is likely to negatively impact the marine environment. The extraction of rare metals from the deep sea has already been implemented and poses a serious risk of harm.
