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Experiments with e-waste

24.07.2018

Geologists in Queensland, Australia have discovered a unique new type of beneficial bacteria that picks up the smallest grains of gold and processes them into larger bars called nuggets. This discovery will allow mining companies to develop previously unpromising deposits, but the most interesting area of \uXNUMXb\uXNUMXbapplication for new bacteria will be the processing and extraction of gold from old electronics.

"E-waste contains quite a lot of gold and some other precious metals," says Frank Reith, professor at the University of Adelaide. the amount of which is in every mobile phone or computer".

It is noted that electronic waste, old mobile phones, computers, TVs, etc., thrown away in 2016 around the world, contained valuable materials worth $ 84 billion, of which $ 29 billion accounted for the value of gold.

“Now we are experimenting with various types of electronic waste and developing a complete technological cycle for extracting gold from it, the main “actors” of which are new bacteria,” says Dr Ollie Crush, a scientist working for the New Zealand Mint.

The found bacteria work by processing various alloys in their womb and filtering out all metals except gold. As a result, the bacterium forms a nanoparticle of high purity gold, which is attached to the "embryo" of the future nugget. This is a rather slow process, the procedure for the complete extraction of gold from e-waste can take from 17 to 58 years, which is very, very long in order to consider the possibility of practical application of the "bacterial" method of extracting gold.

However, scientists working with new bacteria are going to involve genetic scientists in the near future. And, it is likely that geneticists will be able to find and carry out appropriate genetic changes that will greatly accelerate the "gold-mining function" of a new strain of these extremely beneficial bacteria.

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