Gold Mining Bacteria

Anonymous 49'er writes "Nature is reporting that bacteria found in Australian gold mines are capable of extruding tiny invisible 'secondary grains' from soil and alluvial systems. From the article: "Potential applications -- from sensing the bacteria as a way to look for gold mines, to using them to help make industrially useful particles of gold -- may be some way off. But Southam is keen to exploit the bacteria's natural trick. 'I want to make a gold nugget one day,' he says. 'Gold nuggets grow in nature, so why shouldn't I be able to make one?'"

Comments

Why use bacteria?

[aersixb9]

I can find gold in my own backyard. As I'm sure you're all familiar with, there's around 3 feet of topsoil (aka dirt) at most sea-level places. Dig past the first 1m, and you'll find another meter of tan colored clay. This is similar to pottery clay, and can be baked in the sun for a few days, or in an oven for a few hours, to form hard clay. You'll need to add some glaze, of course. Under the tan clay is a gray clay, and under the gray clay is a red clay. (That's how far I've gotten so far...) As for the gold, altuogh layers 1 and 2 are pure, layers 3 and 4 are rocky, and I've found a variety of elements, including little gold nuggets that are worth a ton of money! (Assuming I can find a buyer and obtain a sales permit, of course) I'm hoping there's a gold layer that's 3 feet thick of a nice, soft gold, but I'm not sure how deep I'll have to dig for that. I've already got a water pump on the hole to pump out the water that flows in, although at this time of the year the water doesn't start until ~6 ft deep, in the winter it's almost at ground level.
      On a side note, sometimes the dirt mixes with the clay. Is there any way to seperate dirt from clay? Also, the red clay appears to harden into a brick-like substance when dried for a pretty long time in the sun or oven...and I've also found a clay that was black and white, and hardened into a little piece of granite in ~ 6 months next to the computer.
        Is this bacteria able to seperate the clay from the dirt? Also, I'm finding tons of shiny, golden metals mixed into the gray and red clays, and other elements also, is there a way to seperate these from the surrounding elements?