Biomining the elements of the future
- Written by Marcos Voutsinos, PhD Candidate, Geomicrobiology, University of Melbourne
Joey Kyber/Pixels, CC BY-SA
Biomining is the kind of technique promised by science fiction: a vast tank filled with microorganisms that leach metal from ore, old mobile phones and hard drives.
It sounds futuristic, but it’s currently used to produce about 5% of the world’s gold and 20% of the world’s copper. It’s also used...