# Phytomining?



## kjavanb123 (Dec 7, 2010)

All,

I was reading about this cool technology the other night, anyone here knows if is commercially being used anywhere? or companies with some experiences phytomining gold from tailing?

Thanks
Kev


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## eeTHr (Dec 7, 2010)

It looks like it might also be a way of getting that micro gold which eludes the sluices, shaker tables, blue bowls, and spiral machines.

Gardening for gold?


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## kjavanb123 (Dec 8, 2010)

yep, I found a company in Texas that did some experience with phytomining for Ni.


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## patnor1011 (Dec 8, 2010)

I have found this:

Phytomining is a growing idea that makes money off of phytoextraction of heavy metals. Areas that have heavy metal contamination however the concentration of the metal are not high enough to be economically worthy of exploitations would remediate their soil with suitable phytoaccumulating plants. These plants would then be harvested and the biomass would then be burned to produce bio-ore. Supposedly the fist experiment of this sort was done by Nicks and Michael Chambers at the US Bureau of Mines, Reno, Nevada using the nickel (Ni) hyperaccumulator Streptanthus polygaloides. This project was found to yield 100 kg/ha of sulphur-free Ni. Other plants with larger biomass production have great potential to becoming useful for phytomining. A company in Texas called Viridian Resources is developing commercial Ni phytomining. Nickel is not the only metal that can get phytomined. Dr Chris Anderson, Massey University has also induced plants to hyperaccumulate gold by adding lixivants to the substrate. Phytoming should be seen as an alternative to opencast mining of low grade ore . It is a green technology, the burning of bio-ores is almost sulfur free and require less energy to smelt than is needed for

Phytoremediation is the process of using plant to clean the soil of organics and inorganic pollutants. There are approx 6 type of phytoremediation. phytoextraction also known as phytoaccumulation, is one of those six that mainly deals with the remediation of sediment(soil)and sludge from inorganic/metal contaminant. This is the method mostly used in phytomining.
Source(s):
http://www.ito.ethz.ch/people/robinson/Phytomining.html


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## kjavanb123 (Dec 8, 2010)

Thanks. I am still interested to do phythomining for a 4 million ton copper tailing with 0.5ppm Au and 5ppm Ag.


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## Shecker (Feb 4, 2011)

The Mexican Poppy requires a high level of copper for its growth and its occurrence has been used to trace copper deposits. Also "Loco Weed" requires a lot of selenium to grow -- its presence in an area is a dead giveaway of selenium mineralization being present. I've heard of a plant that is an indicator for gold geochemistry but can't think of the name. Oh well, too much water under the bridge and the bridge floated aweay.

Randy in Gunnison


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## eeTHr (Feb 4, 2011)

Shecker---

Are you thinking of the Desert Trumpet Plant?

http://www.arizonagoldprospectors.com/Desert_Trumpet_Plant.htm


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## Steppegold (Feb 28, 2011)

Phytomining is a fascinating topic. 

I've read bits about willow (Salix) commonly absorbing so much cadmium that Moose get sick when they graze on it in winter. About copper there are some plants that are indicators, but molybdenum is a classic as veterinary records of sheep with swayback, is due to high molybdenum locking up copper and hence triggering copper deficiency.

I've gathered some technical references on gold accumulation in plants - enjoy!

Steppe
http://www.mine.mn

358. Anderson, Christopher; R.R. Brooks, Robert Stewart and R. Simcock (1998). Harvesting a crop of gold in plants. Nature (London), volume 395, pages 553-554.

359. Anderson, Christopher; Robert Stewart, Fabio Moreno, Carel Wreesmann, Jorge Gardea-Torresdey, Brett Robinson and John Meech (2003). Gold phytomining. Novel Developments in a Plant-based Mining System.
Download PDF: http://www.gold.org//discover/sci_i...df?PHPSESSID=008570ced09611e1c09ef1d58d2a54d3

360. Anderson, Christopher; Robert Stewart, Carel Wreesmann, G. Smith and John Meech (2003). Bio- nanotechnology and phytomining: the living synthesis of gold nanoparticles by plants. In: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on the Intelligent Processing and Manufacturing of Materials (IPMM), (editors: John Meech, Y. Kawazoe, J.F. Maguire, V. Kumar and H. Wang) Sendai, Japan, 18th
23rd May 2003. CD-ROM.

361. Anderson, Christopher (2004). Biogeochemistry of gold: accepted theories and new opportunities. In: I. Shtangeeva (editor) Trace and Ultratrace Elements in Plants and Soil, WIT Press, Southampton.

362. Anderson, Christopher; Fabio Morenoa and John Meech (2005). A field demonstration of gold phytoextraction technology. Minerals Engineering, volume 18, pages 385-392. 
Field demonstration with Companhia Vale do Rio Doce at Fazenda Brasileiro mine in Bahia, Brazil on an oxidized ore containing 0.6 g/t gold Brassica juncea (Indian mustard) averaged 39 mg/kg after NaCN treatment. Laboratory and greenhouse evidence suggests 1kg of gold by plants from 1ha of land is a realistic target on a soil/ore with >2g/t gold. 

363. Covington, Amy (2001). Fields of Gold. International California Mining Journal ICMJ, issue August 2001.
Phytomining is a cousin to phytoremediation and involves extracting metals such as gold from harvested plants.

364. Gardea-Torresdey, J.L.; J.G. Parsons, E. Gomez, J. Peralta-Videa, H.E. Troiani, P. Santiago and M. Jose Yacaman (2002). Formation and growth of Au nanoparticles inside live alfalfa plants. Nano Letters, volume 2, pages 397-401.
Evidence of mobility of gold, with uptake by certain plants from soil.

365. Lamb, A.E.; Christopher Anderson and Richard Haverkamp (2001). The Induced Accumulation of Gold in the Plants Brassica Juncea, Berkheya Coddii and Chicory. Chemistry in New Zealand, volume 65, pages 34-36.

366. Parkinson, Gerald (editor) (2002). Chementator: gold from alfalfa. Chemical Engineering, September 2002.


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## Drewbie (Mar 1, 2011)

Here's another interesting read. This time it's silver and fungi, with some species found to have over 1g of silver per kg of matter.

http://sbli.ls.manchester.ac.uk/fungi/21st_Century_Guidebook_to_Fungi/REPRINT_collection/Borovicka_etal_hyperaccumulation_of_silver_Amanita.pdf

So if you see any mushrooms growing on a tailings pile... :lol:


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