How many grams of Au are there in the whole ocean? With a 60% recovery possible, how many liters of seawater must be processed for gold to obtain 1 kg of that metal?
- MW of Au = 196.967 gram/mole
- Avg. seawater concentration of Au = 2.5 x 10^-11 mole/kg of seawater
- mean density of seawater = 1.037 gram/cm3 of seawater
- equatorial radius of the earth = 6378 km
- volume of the oceans = 361.059 x 10^6 km2
- avg. depth of the oceans = 3795 meters