Carbon adsorbents with mechanical strengths of 90-93% and a micropore volume of 0.16-0.3 cm(3)/cm(3) have been obtained from nitrated asphaltites by the existing industrial technology. Compared to industrial carbon with the trademark KAD-iodine, medium-charred specimens are highly selective in extracting gold and silver from multicomponent polymetal solutions and have a high capacity for sorbing arsenic from waste waters.