I don't know exactly how this is done for cats but I've gotten into some backyard metal extraction before. If you have lax safety standards and some ingenuity a

I don't know exactly how this is done for cats but I've gotten into some backyard metal extraction before. If you have lax safety standards and some ingenuity a lot of precious metal extraction can be done with reasonably inexpensive and small equipment, it's the kind of thing you could set up in a rented garage for probably under $10k in equipment if you're thrifty and clever. https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jchem/2019/2318157/ https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jchem/2019/2318157/ suggests a process, basic technique seems to be to extract the core, crush it, and then chemical separation and precipitation using reasonably easy to get reagents. And given that they talk about it as an eco-friendly method I suspect that isn't the easiest way.