byron@octopus.UUCP (Mike Byron) (11/06/85)
A friend of mine was trying to explain to me about a new "germ" someone has developed thru genetic engineering that is now being applied to gold mining. My friend has no biological training, so the way in which the bug is used was kind of garbled. It had something to do with the bugs inserting themselves between the gold ore and the geological substrate, and carrying with them an arsenic compound that helped to dissolve the ore out of the rock. Does anybody out there have details about this? Seems like an odd, but useful application of genetic engineering. I'd appreciate either an informed explanation or a reference for an article to read...
devine@asgb.UUCP (Robert J. Devine) (11/08/85)
The Denver Post just recently (I believe it was last Sunday) had an article on the person who proposes doing just that -- "mining" for gold using a certain strain of bacteria. This person has a bacteria named after him (an honor, I suppose :-)) because he was the one who isolated it from an environment that was thought to be too hostile for any life. The bacteria loves high temperature and high acidity as long as there is metal around. From what I remember of the gold extraction process, a tailored bacteria is applied to walls of mines that have had the all easily mined gold removed. The bacteria feeds on a binding material (sulfur ?) releasing the gold. To recover this freed gold, the walls are hosed down and the washing processed. The guy also proposes using bacteria to recover the gold from jeweler washings and scrap. He says he can now do it cheaper than chemical recovery methods. If you want the man's name or just more information, send mail. I'll dig up the article. Bob Devine (seismo!hao!asgb!devine || sdcrdcf!bmcg!asgb!devine)
davison@bnl44.UUCP (Dan Davison) (11/11/85)
> A friend of mine was trying to explain to me about a new "germ" someone > has developed thru genetic engineering that is now being applied to gold > mining. An article in a recent Scientific American (last 2-3 years) specifically dis- cussed using bacteria in mining. You've got the idea right; they exchange ions (and in the case discussed in the article) get iron ( I think) out of what would be otherwise useless ore. Sorry I can't be more specific: any library should have the index. dan davison Dept of Biochemical Sciences, Univ. of Houston