2015-Sustainable Industrial Processing Summit
SIPS 2015 Volume 4: Meech Intl. Symp. / Mining Operations
| Editors: | Kongoli F, Veiga MM, Anderson C |
| Publisher: | Flogen Star OUTREACH |
| Publication Year: | 2015 |
| Pages: | 275 pages |
| ISBN: | 978-1-987820-27-0 |
| ISSN: | 2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series) |
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Metals, Living Plants and Sustainable Mining: Phytoextraction in the 21st Century
Christopher Anderson1;1MASSEY UNIVERSITY, Palmerston North, New Zealand;
Type of Paper: Regular
Id Paper: 418
Topic: 4
Abstract:
The concept of using plants to remediate or mine metals from soil can no longer be considered novel. Initial reports in the 1970s and 1980s have been proven around the world through research trials and commercial operations and today there is a well-established International Phytotechnology Society. But never before has the idea of phytoextraction been so relevant to the minerals industry. Phytoextraction is being used to promote sustainability development within artisanal and small-scale gold mining communities, to green chemistry, and to new technology sectors that exploit active compounds in biological tissues for medical gains.
Some of the most exciting innovations in phytoextraction have been led by Prof. John Meech and the University of British Columbia. The concept of using plants enriched in gold as a catalyst in automotive reactions was first described at an IPMM (Intelligent Processing and Manufacturing of Materials) conference in Japan in 2003. Nine years later, this same idea received over 1 million euros of funding from the G8’s Material Efficiency Programme. The idea of nickel phytomining is gaining traction: at a workshop at the University of Queensland in July 2014 consensus was reached that the time was right for a professional phytomining society.
This paper will review development in phytoextraction with particular focus on phytomining, and emphasise the relevance and application of the idea to sustainable mining in the 21st Century.