thursday, may 24, 2007
Dust into Gold
Next door to me lives a man who turns dust to gold.Here in Peru, I live on Avenida La Paz in Miraflores which is lined with jewelry shops or joyerias in Spanish.
Once a month or so my neighbor, Cesar Miyakawa, goes around to the workshops and collects the refuse that has been swept up off the floors. He sifts through it and then melts this down in a propane-fueled kiln.
That produces a glassy-like shard of gook as well as a few tiny specks of gold. A few more steps and he has recovered a nugget of 24 carat gold about the size of a pencil eraser which he will sell back to one of the jewelry shops for about $30.
Cesar was kind enough to allow me to document the process which I present to you as a slideshow, Dust to Gold.
more: Peru | Slideshows
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