Introduction Phytomining

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INTRODUCTION - PHYTOMINING

Without mining there would be no skyscrapers or railroads, no steel bridges or steamships, no washing
machines or vacuum cleaners, no automobiles or airplanes, no saws or screwdrivers. There would not
even be jewelry or coins. For without mining men could not secure any of the minerals which serve as
raw structural materials, such as iron and copper; supply fuel, such as coal and petroleum, or are used in
the industrial and fine arts, such as silver and gold.

As early as five thousand years ago the Egyptians opened up copper mines in Arabia. In the 9th century
B.C. great columns of iron were made in India. The Phoenicians sailed as far as Britain in search of tin
and skirted the coasts of Africa hunting after other minerals. At Laurium in Greece were famous lead
and silver mines. The Romans had iron mines on the island of Elba and sent thousands of slaves to work
in Spanish copper mines. The Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru gathered together huge quantities
of gold and along the shores of Lake Huron the Indians had copper mines.

In ancient mines men worked slowly and patiently. Fire and water were used to break out the metal-
bearing ore and men crushed it with crude hammers. Men, women and children loaded the broken ore
into baskets and carried it out of the mines.

Nowadays mining, as one of the basic industries, is on a scientific basis. Fewer lives are lost and a
smaller amount of the mineral is wasted. Men are trained in technical schools and colleges to specialize
in each of the three principal steps of mining.

These are the prospecting, or locating of the mineral; the planning and execution of profitable ways to
mine it; and the making of arrangements for the safety and health of the miners.

However, there are drawbacks in mining because this activity induces environmental destruction.

But what if mining for precious metals no longer meant descending deep down into the earth to go find
them? What if acquiring minerals such as nickel, zinc, and cadmium was as simple as planting a few
flowers and watching them grow? A concept called “phytomining” could make just such a phenomenon
possible.

Phytomining is the production of a `crop' of a metal by growing high-biomass plants that accumulate
high metal concentrations. Some of these plants are natural hyperaccumulators, and in others the
property can be induced. Certain metals occur in soil that plants will naturally absorb through their root
systems. Plenty of metals are actually poisonous to plants, so most species will either die from absorbing
them or expel them from their tissue before they can do any harm. Plants classified as
“hyperaccumulators”, however, will collect and concentrate these toxic metals in their tissue. Seeing as
these plants often store these metals in their tasty leaves, this may be a way of deterring herbivores
from feeding on them.

Nickel is an example of one metal that can be sucked up and stored by a hyperaccumulator. For humans,
the current the process of obtaining nickel from soil is a highly complicated one. It entails transporting
all of the soil in question to a special facility to draw out the high-prized element and then trucking the
soil all the way back once the extraction is over with. The inherent value of nickel (which we use in
batteries, stainless steel, and, oh yeah, nickels) makes this laborious process somehow worth the effort.

A hyperaccumulator called Alyssum bertolonii could provide an easier option. A. bertolonii absorbs and
packages nickel so well that massive fields of it could be planted in nickel-laden soil, and then be
harvested for the metal. It is thought that extracting the metal from these leaves would be far easier
than manually separating it from the soil itself. A single acre of A. bertoloniicould yield 350 pounds of
nickel. That’s a lot for simply planting and harvesting the plants rather than mining the minerals.

Alyssum bertolonii (Brunello Pierini)

Even if phytomining doesn’t become the new standby for mineral acquisition, the process could still be
used for the cleansing of ecosystems that have been contaminated with toxic metals. Planting
hyperaccumulators could be a simpler way of drawing metals out of soil and making an area more
suitable for plants that don’t necessarily want to suck up poison every day.

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