To efficiently separate heavy metals from raw material particles of agricultural and marine products or the like for a relatively short time and to miniaturize an apparatus while dispensing with waste water treatment.

A raw material comprising heavy metal-containing agricultural and marine products, industrial waste or waste water sludge is dried by a dryer 11 and the dried raw material is ground by a grinder 12 and, further, raw material particles 14 with a predetermined particle size are classified from the ground raw material by a classifier 13. This raw material particles 14 are fed into a predetermined electric field generated by an electrostatic selector 16 in a state charged by the giving and receiving of electrons in a friction, heating or charge acceleration part and coulomb force is generated in the charged raw material particles 14 by the predetermined electric field and the raw material particles 14 are further separated into raw material particles much in heavy metal content and raw material particles little in havy metal content on the basis of the difference in coulomb force due to the difference in heavy metal content of the raw material particles 14.