It has been thought in the mine exploration business for years that
there must exist a biological pathway active in moving water that is
able to mobilize gold and also coagulate it to form larger gold
complexes. The gold nuggets were forming in environments that just
had never gotten hot enough to satisfy the known volcanic process.
It may turn out the gold is primarily bio available rather than in
any other manner. Much gold deposition I have inspected could be
better so explained.
At least we now have the sought for medium identified and it is easy
to take it forward. And yes it is good sense to inoculate
neutralized mine tailings to collect the residual gold which is never
trivial.
Scientists discover
bacteria that can make gold out of mine waste
Cecilia Jamasmie |
February 5, 2013
A group of scientists
has identified a bacterium that turns toxic water-soluble gold into
microscopic nuggets of the solid precious metal, reveals the paper
published Monday in Nature Chemical Biology.
The finding solves a
mystery that for decades has intrigued biochemists, which is why the
Delftia acidovorans germ is frequently found on the surface of tiny
gold nuggets.
Nathan Magarvey of
McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, and his team grew a colony
of this microorganism, and conducted tests to determine how it
produces the molecular-sized gold nuggets outside its cell wall. The
group concluded the answer lies in a molecule excreted by the microbe
that both shields the organism and transforms the poisonous ions into
particles.
In other words, it
protects itself by turning its environment to gold.
“This finding is the
first demonstration that a secreted metabolite can protect against
toxic gold and cause gold biomineralization,” the process by which
living organisms produce minerals, they wrote in the journal.
Frank Reith, a
microbiologist at the University of Adelaide in Australia, whose work
on gold-processing bacteria was a touchstone for Magarvey's team,
told Nature, the finding opens up the possibility of using a
bacterium or metabolite to seed waste-drop piles, leave them standing
for years, and see if bigger gold particles form.
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