I find Goldschlaeger offensive. Waste of a limited, valuable resource. And I've seen baked Alaska with gold foil.
They say all the gold mined in all of human history is 165,000 metric tonnes. Density is 19,300kg / cubic metre, so that's a cube 20.45 metres on each side. About 2,500 metric tonnes are mined each year, which is a cube 5 metres on each side. Rich mines are long since played out; mines today have ridiculously low concentration.
If you remove the circuit board from an old computer, separating it from the metal case, plastic, hard drive, etc., then that circuit board has more gold per kg than most gold mines. That's why computer recycling exists. The issue is simply cost of separation. One scrap metal company in Winnipeg used to pay more for separated circuit boards, but for some reason stopped accepting them.
But this article is about precious metals in sewage. You realize if you eat gold, it comes out in poop. Human metabolism cannot use gold. You can't digest it. Why?
Youth can digest sand. If you're young and strong, stomach acid will dissolve anorthite or bytownite in sand, releasing silicon in a form your system can absorb. Other forms of feldspar do not dissolve in acid. Human metabolism does require a tiny amount of silicon, but most people get that from green vegetables. And human bones are not just calcium, they also have magnesium. But even youth cannot digest magnesium metal, you get it from chlorophyll found in green plants. Again, green vegetables. Silicon and strontium are not part of bone, but are required for enzymes that build bone. Strontium also cannot be absorbed as metal, but compounds containing it in a form we can digest are found in green vegetables. Again, green vegetables. Why would you eat metal?