{"id":1129275,"date":"2019-07-28T09:00:39","date_gmt":"2019-07-28T14:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=997609"},"modified":"2019-07-28T09:00:39","modified_gmt":"2019-07-28T14:00:39","slug":"phytomining-is-a-thing-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1129275","title":{"rendered":"Phytomining is a thing in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers at the University of Queensland have been working on developing a phytomining technology that allows them to harvest metals from the living tissue of a group of plants known as hyperaccumulators, which retain metals in high concentrations after absorbing them through their roots.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>These plants absorb metals from mining wastes, which are normally stored in tailings facilities and contain valuable metals such as cobalt. In the view of researcher Philip Nkrumah, these waste accumulations represent some of the largest untapped resources globally.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote alignright\">\n<blockquote>\n<p> Intensive screening efforts in global herbaria have led to the discovery of more than 100 hyperaccumulator plants new to science<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cPhytomining is an innovative solution because it complements the global supply chain for critical minerals like cobalt while promoting the circular economy by utilising mining waste,\u201d Nkrumah said in a media statement. \u201cSome species of plants can contain up to 1% of cobalt or 4% of nickel in their shoots, translating to more than 25% metal in their ash which is dubbed \u2018bio-ore&#8217;.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Besides cobalt, plants such as Australia\u2019s native legume New Holland Rattlepod, which grows around MMG\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/chinas-mmg-ploughs-aud1-5bn-into-queesnland-zinc-mine-11326\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Dugald River mine (opens in a new tab)\">Dugald River mine<\/a>, have shown zinc hyperaccumulation.<\/p>\n<p>According to Nkrumah, the high purity of bio-sourced metals makes them especially suited for applications in the electrochemical industry, like producing rechargeable batteries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers at the Sustainable Minerals Institute in Queensland are looking for sustainable solutions to some of the supply-side issues the mining industry is going to face.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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