Could Plants Help Solve Our Addiction to Mining?

Agro-mining is the process of growing plants that absorb metals from the ground. The science is solid, but will this innovation ever be scalable enough to reduce traditional, destructive mining practices? Presented by Sabic.
#Science #TheSpark #BloombergQuicktake
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[@eklectiktoni]

For those who are confused: #1 Hyperaccumulators are plants that naturally take up an inordinate amount of certain metals (nickel, zinc, cadmium, lead, cobalt, etc). These plants can be grown on land that can't be used to grow other crops. The hyperaccumulator plant isn't fit for eating because it stores large (toxic) amounts of metals in its leaves. One notable hyperaccumulator is _Pycnandra acuminata._ Its has green latex because of the high amount of nickel in the tree. #2 The scientists aren't saying this tech would replace mining. They are saying it could be used in conjunction with mining - either to use the plants in places that have been contaminated by mining operations or in peripheral areas around the mine where metal levels are still high, but not high enough to warrant digging up. #3 Burning the plant biomass does create some CO2 emissions, but much less than mining for metals so it is still an environmentally friendly practice. #4 Because hyperaccumulators remove harmful heavy metals from the soil, in time they actually can actually help the land become safe for growing food plants again. The last point is how I became familiar with this practice. Plants are grown on toxic soil to clean them up for food use again. It's called phytoremediation and has proved successful in several trials at this point.

[@r.guerreiro140]

Actually, the plants accumulate sun energy an atmosphere CO2 to extract the metals The carbon sequestration preceeds it's release on energy production and minerals recovery So it may even be carbon negative It's a win win win

[@TristanMorrow]

↑ all the misanthropic comments have been because the video was not nearly as clear as your stellar 4-point comment X-) Bloomberg should hire you and pay you 2x whoever they have currently!

[@TristanMorrow]

@@r.guerreiro140 produces positive net carbon emissions, unfortunately, like most farming around the world does ...no amount of wishful thinking changes that :-/

[@r.guerreiro140]

@@TristanMorrow Come on here to see real farming by your own eyes Our biggest concern is to keep and improve our soil fertility, what's directly proportional to the Organic Matter ratio That's why we spend money in crops which will not be harvested, but let down on the field to improve the MO ratio and feed the pedobiota Once legal issues are resolved, we will provide the world not only food, but carbon credits as well in amounts as vast as the first By the way, we already feed 1,2 to 1,4 billion people worldwide, about six times our own population You seems to be a wise person, so, please forget the defamation campaign the global media is raging against us, Brazilian farmers, and go after primary sources I suggest you two items to start: 1. Plantio direto no Brasil 2. Culturas de cobertura

[@zeroeu5510]

@@r.guerreiro140 plants actually have aerobic respiration, that is why the Amazon isn’t the lungs of the world, is also transforms oxygen in co2

[@yomajo]

Engineer watching video: 1. How many squared kilometers of arable land is needed to yield 1t of Nickel per year / month / day? 2. Plants need to get Nickel from somewhere. How many cycles same soil can sustain before yield drops below economic threshold?

[@motioncompensation1544]

Maybe we can try some back of the envelope calculations. Best case is a plant that’s 4% nickel in weight. Information on nickel content of soil can be found on the net. I would be interested to see a calculation that somewhat answers your questions. We could add assumptions, like so many harvests a year, how deep the roots grow etc. In any case, looking at those mines, I’m sure the plants will never be able to get nickel from those depths.

[@Megalepozy]

My thoughts exactly... also it's basically mining about 30cm into the earth..... this is negligible... waited all this video to get a single statement about this issue but nothing

[@parkerqi5543]

They grow Thlaspi caerulescens which mature every year. They are only growing it on soil with high zinc concentration, so I would assume they only grow a few times before abandoning the field.

[@Jonathan-ex3sl]

I think that’s why they said at the end this will only be a supplement to extract a bit extra nickel from soils that aren’t worth traditional extraction

[@keenheat3335]

for more expensive metal like gold and platinum, there are already existing bio-mining technique that utilize genetic engineered bacteria to leach out metal from ultra low concentration ore. It able to extract like 99.5% remaining from the low grade ore cheaply. But it does take several weeks for the extraction process to completed. I think this type of bio-minig via plant is quite similar. Most likely it will serves as a method to extract metal from ore that has too low of concentration to be processed normally. And existed along side with regular method. It won't replace the regular method, but serve to recycle waste ore to get more metal out of it.

[@clarissawestbrook2203]

I study plant and soil science. I have never heard of agromining before it seems to be ecological sound. This was an interesting and insightful video on agromining.

[@wlhgmk]

Arguably, the use of floating water plants is more useful and more economic. At least two (probably more) water plants can concentrate a range of metals 5 orders of magnitude from the water they grow in. They are Azola and Water Hyacinths. If you then dry the plants you gain another order of magnitude and if you ash the dry plant, one more OoM. The heat from burning the dry plants could be used for heating or electricity generation,,,, and of course for drying more plants. If the plants are grown in nutrient rich water (from a sewage plant??) they multiply at a fantastic rate and you just have to continually harvest (scoop off the surface) at a rate that allows maximum growth rate or maximum metal harvest. They can be used in, for instance, the water leaking out of a mine waste dump, thus cleaning up the water for other uses while harvesting metals that were not extracted originally. The only place I can see for land based plants is to clean up a contaminated sight. Water plants are far more easily industrialized.

[@Kennon959]

would love to see this used on former mines to clean up the areas

[@kingston872]

They do. It's called phytoremediation. Phytomining is an extension of this practice.

[@richpt3646]

Indonesia produces and posses the largest nickel reserve in the world. We stop exporting raw nickel to Europe and they accuse us of trade infringement and environmental pollution. Yet they actually want our nickel for their cheap steel and alumunium

[@user-dq6gu1hy2y]

Mksd lo RRC ntel?

[@BoyBombay]

they go all Buka Pintu! Buka Pintu!

[@ariapinandita6388]

Ah... Indonesia kan sudah pernah keluar PBB, keluar WTO juga nggak masalah... Sebenarnya sih, negara2 maju itu yang merusak alam... Kita hidup tanpa teknologi jaman sekarang juga masih bisa-bisa saja...

[@18booma]

Yeah. the "developed" world does the same to South Africa. The majority of South Africa's electricity is produced using coal. About 15% of our electricity is used for mining, by companies that aren't even South African owned. And when the demand for electricity gets too high we sit in the dark. But they won't help us in any meaningful way to grow our renewable energy production. And if you say "nationalize the mines" the capitalists act as if we said something about their mamas. And all of this while paying entry-level miners less than $500 a month, and only providing safe working conditions after a lot of pressure from the unions and a little massacre when the miners engaged in a strike (Look up Marikana for context).

[@EstebanZavalaF]

we are defending our Ciudad Juarez from mining and i had exactly that question, how do we get rid off mining by sustainable methods. THank you for the info, it opens my mind to new processes

[@silverismoney]

I suppose you could burn them in a biomass boiler no? recover some of the heat energy. Ash is ash, but might as well use the heat for something.

[@r.guerreiro140]

For sure

[@nunyabiznes33]

In the very least, use the heat to run the facility as well as dry the harvested plants.

[@r.guerreiro140]

@@nunyabiznes33 Almost the entire Brazilian grain and seeds output is dried using Eucalyptus firewood

[@wadafik]

Agromining is so interesting. We are so blessed to have all these brilliant scientists for coming up with such innovative solutions.

[@riiko92]

I wonder if it would be best to only harvest the leaves and the seeds and let the plants grow to big trees so they can produce bigger root systems and more branches, leaves and seeds to extract more and more metals from the earth.

[@martintirpak1033]

Great idea! I would like to know if this technique can be used for extracting remaining metals from mining waste. I know, mining waste is closer to rock than soil and the toxicity levels are way higher, but maybe it could be ground and mixed with normal soil, then treated with hyperaccumulator plants.

[@1987Confused]

That wa my first thought to but mixing in other waste like the ash and sludge from sewage and landfill incinerators might give you enough carbon and soil remediation. That stuff also often has alot of metals and stuff in it. I used to work for a railroad and we shipped alot of trash like that mostly from around NYC to the south it was gross in more than a physical sense

[@morganwilson6390]

if this were to be really successful i imagine mining waste could be used as a fertilize making the "waste" another product

[@AXIAM79]

Reminds me of an article that described using sunflowers to clean up radioactive contaminated soil.

[@borzycrn]

Very interesting for soil remediation, but this is pretty misleading to say it would have any impact on human needs of nickel.

[@WestOfEarth]

Not really misleading. If one watches the video, the researchers even admit it won't replace traditional mining, but is a supplemental method. Also, these plants needn't be used only for soil remediation. It is mentioned in the video because it's a nice bonus to the work of extracting nickel.

[@yiminyu7131]

i think the point is to help restore the land after mining, and it can also produce a little bit of nickel whiles its doing the restoration

[@sayyidsahal4533]

i think we can start these farming in barren lands in less investments and store the dried crops until the extration facilities improves.

[@JJ.OnTheWay]

If I remember correctly... I have read an article 5 - 10 years ago, a group of researchers used sunflower plants to clean up radioactive field or heavy metal soil. Wonder if they are the same group of researchers. Change it in the form that more easily to handle... One step at a time. Great idea!

[@user-nd4bl3cb2r]

👍

[@onlymediumsteak9005]

Very interesting, hopefully genetic engineering can make it competitive within the next couple of years.

[@maybehesbornwithitmaybeits9318]

this would make a cool ore multiplying minecraft mod

[@patrickday4206]

We need plants for the bottom of lakes many lakes around here have crazy levels of toxic metals that no one wants to clean up because it may do more damage.

[@pflernak]

Some time in the future: "What are you doing?" "Fertilizing the land with old e-waste"

[@shannonpenney5361]

I've worked in the mining industry for a long time now. It astounds me how people don't understand how mining touches your daily lives every single day of your lives. It's dumbfounding. Every article of steel near you, any product produced on a metal machine was directly touched by that industry. Yet, never noticed for how important it actually is. I'll never understand it.

[@timedone8502]

The same people think Tik Tok influencers are more important/impactful than engineers, scientists etc..

[@TristanMorrow]

I work in the Steel industry; same.

[@jascrandom9855]

What if they used the earth extracted from the mines to straight up "fertilize" agromining farms?

[@glennmartin6492]

I understand that biomining with microbes play an important part in the mining industry right now.

[@1971jwing]

Seems like an additional layer to improve recovery not a replacement. Thats still super awesome thank you.

[@joris7000]

Very cool video!

[@arthurrodrigues451]

suddenly, those minecraft mods where you get ore from plants don't sound that crazy anymore

[@RuslanKagirov]

Amazing scientific idea and possibly best for biological revegetation.

[@Laura-S196]

Very interesting. This is a technology with great potential. Thank you Bloomberg for the video.

[@Mesozoic_mammal]

"Potential" is not the same as "sounds great on paper".

[@richardmalesza7820]

Communism sound's great on paper.

[@thomasbermea347]

This is pretty interesting, the technology has tons of potential

[@everythingisfine9988]

Fantastic! If this truly works, let's do it. Something needs to be done asap

[@PoweredbyRobots]

Using plant beds to remove metal and clean extraction products from mine effluent would increase yields and efficiency, particularly of rare earth metals. Then planting Equisetum and phytomining plants would recover any remaining rare earths to a depth of 50m.

[@WestOfEarth]

excellent summary.

[@mlove.97]

Thank you for sharing. Praying this can become more probable, likely & available 🙏💗🌎

[@MrFujinko]

Bloomberg is the definition of gullibility.

[@TheNightwalker247]

Some mushrooms are amazing hyperacumulators as well

[@TojiFushigoroWasTaken]

Miners:"If it can be grown, it has to be mined" Scientists:"Good news! Everyone we can do that now" Miners:"shhhit"

[@yesi6058]

This should be trialed in Flint, Michigan a great way to clean environmental pollution there and potentially make money

[@SailorBarsoom]

Ah! Is there a lead-accumulating plant? This sort of thing could also be used after a mine is abandoned, both to get the last bit of metal out of the tailings, and to clean up the soil for after-mining use.

[@craeewan6323]

Just have to add that mining for metal creates alot of "waste" however there are alot of byproducts. Its not simply digging a massive hole in the ground and then throwing out everything that isn't metal. Woodlands need to be cleared via a logging contractor which produces lumbar and other product. Top soil need to be analyzed and hauled away. Clay is used in construction, sand is used in construction, stones of all sizes and types are hauled away for any number of uses such as gravel. The material waste comes from removing the metal ore.

[@sherlock6254]

very cool

[@nicksurfs1]

I wonder if these plants could be used to clean up the Berkeley pit. I know we spend a lot of time and money making sure it doesn’t get worse, I wish we could do something to make it better

[@patrickday4206]

I've been wondering for years if this could be possible. Nice job now we need a plant for gold

[@bachefingili1]

There should be ways to extract contents like maple syrup ... in this way the separation/distillation process would be cheaper...

[@kdm1234gmail]

I think this is a wonderful idea and if they can help the plants take up higher concentrations it could have a great benefit for waste reduction and improvement of natural ecosystems. I know I have been doing all I can to help the area around my parents house. Trying to learn how the system around me works to find ways to help it do its own processes and finding ways to do the things I need, so it doesn't mess up those systems and perhaps helps make it easier for me with my medical issues.

[@NYCeesFinest]

Great content, definitely newsworthy.

[@Elsureel]

The plants may be able to take up metals, but I would think only in the soil that their roots actually reach. I have yet to see a mine that is only a few feet deep at most. This is interesting but not any sort of replacement to mining.

[@pipedreamer2u]

If they are so desperate for these metals, why have the prices been suppressed?! Our plants give us the oxygen we need.

[@VerifyTheTruth]

Grade A+ Product.

[@abhishekdev258]

Exciting

[@gmc___]

that's so cool

[@sn5301679]

But it only able to absorb top soil's minerals, there no way they can dig down hundreds meter underground with their roots

[@donkeytwoddle]

I agree. Unless they make a huge genetic engineering leap & make the hyperaccumulators into a pine tree we aren't really going to get very far..

[@n.g.s1mple29]

Yes, they explicitly stated that it can't directly compete with conventional mining......

[@ArtDocHound]

What about all the water?

[@AdamBechtol]

Nice.

[@storyls]

I’m invoking Betteridge's law of headlines here

[@zdlax]

*Walking into a greenhouse* "And they call it a mine. A MINE!"

[@Roshankm1994]

In agriculture term, these are called trace minerals. To obtain these in trace quantity and compete with mining industry would be very hard. But you guys doing a good job.. all the very best..

[@WestOfEarth]

They're not trying to compete, per se. The demand for nickel is such that agromining is now a profitable method for obtaining it.

[@engin4482]

how much can a plant mine? can't imagine it can be comparable one day.. but %20 percent nickel in the ash sound not bad or..

[@sartajsingh6303]

There is a major flaw in this, they burn the leaves which creates huge CO2 and CH4 release. They are accounting emissions to convert plant into ash as negligible. But it is not negligible. Like Air resistance which is not negligible.

[@guillaumeechevarria5219]

Except that the heat produced by the boiler is used in replacement of fossil fuel and heats a Research building. Unfortunately it is not stated in the video. CO2 emitted (oxidation so no CH4 measured) is the same as fixed by the crop during the same year.

[@guillaumeechevarria5219]

In that case it is really circular

[@lucasaxavier]

so there is this thing we call entrophy... this is less eficient in so may ways, that what realy impress is that now we have options for when the mines come exausted... But cheap fusion energi solves best, because of soil ocupation questions

[@HonoredMule]

Actual subject starts at about 5:20.

[@brandenthrasher4948]

HELP! DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT PLANT TO GROW WHEN DEALING WITH TOXOPLASMOSIS IN SOIL??

[@GGMegaTank]

Could really use this in Jamaica

[@lxhandrorangel8214]

How much fresh water would lt be consuming??

[@vanaddoteye3334]

The Minecraft music in the Background at 5:17

[@mauriciomorales3165]

Do you know if there are some big biotech companies working with this technology?

[@liamredmill9134]

There is new battery teck,that does not require cobalt or zink,like all problematic pollution it is demand that drives the pollution,and as the newest extremely efficient batteries not requiring these elements, demand will be driven down

[@Macknull]

Quite literal alchemy

[@wkinne1]

Could these plants be used as a cover crop to reduce the heavy metals in crops grown with them? Remove the biomass from the field and over a few season perhaps have reduced the heavy metal levels to the point it is no longer necessary to repeat this process?

[@LuxurioMusic]

I'm not entirely sure if this is what you're talking about, but they have used specific sunflower varieties to help clean up the soil around Chernobyl. Planting them, harvesting them when grown, incinerating them and then vitrifying the remains into a glass to be stored safely. The process is called phytoremediation, I find it so fascinating.

[@MoempfLP]

Agromining cannot replace mining. It can only decontaminate polluted soils.

[@danielstau6592]

This will be usefull in a few 100 years

[@ricehuskind9947]

Seeds information please 📍

[@gabipo6985]

the problem is that how many land you will need to make 1 batery

[@moshehim1000]

I've got a question: In the film they show mines going tens of meters underground to get to the stuff they're extracting. Can the hyper collector plants' roots really reach that deep to do the same?

[@KRYMauL]

The Shepard's Tree has the deepest roots at 70 m. I'd imagine that most of these plants have much smaller roots and that's probably a variable that is being looked at.

[@jonnyh5858]

I remember in 7th grade they made us learn the definition of “nadir” now 18years later I hear it in the opening of this video haha

[@rianantony]

Nickel extraction asmr starts: 7:13 7:13

[@10-OSwords]

Is this even worth it based on how little metals it can produce & HOW MUCH WATER IT WOULD TAKE? We are losing fresh drinking water to pollution, farming/ranching, etc...

[@andrewharbit7449]

Perhaps we could find species of algea that could extract metals

[@shadowshadow2724]

I had this idea for 3 years.

[@VRtechman]

So this process is for cleaning up contaminated land!? But How does it take to Decontaminate 1 cubic mile of land?!

[@milo-qh7cv]

not practical for mining but useful for cleaning surface soil metal pollution

[@superbhiel]

I do hope they turn this mining land to forest again..

[@aspenschannel7740]

A great video but I almost ignored it because of the clickbaity title

[@Ghulatz]

If Agro-mining is happening on abandoned mining sites that will be a great step.

[@Bruessarda]

What about Metal From Mushrooms?

[@falsofalsofalso3348]

What are the main challenges why this is isnt adopted?

[@humanity1581]

Facts presented... I heard it for the first time. Are they correct?

[@gourisankarmandal6733]

Recycling is best

[@dr.debbiewilliams]

Why stop at nickel? If that can happen with nickel, then why not utilize the land where other metals can be mined?

[@leonardobrawijayamrq8914]

i think undersea mining will be the future compare to agro-mining.

[@Thvndar]

how many plants are needed to make 1 EV battery?

[@riiko92]

👍👍👍

[@AL-rv3jz]

All thing been equal. We finds the alternative to offset the opposite

[@kahlzun]

Wouldn't burning the plants release a lot of CO2?

[@112313]

1: only possible for surface extraction of metals. 2: it will take a long time for plants to grow. 3: unless it is used for mineral extraction from waste materials, this is practically useless.

[@KRYMauL]

It would take a couple months because these are essentially easy harvest plants/

[@n.g.s1mple29]

These are small plants, they don't take very long to grow, yes it's clear this can't directly compete with conventional mining but it has its place

[@tdtrecordsmusic]

Hyperaccumulating tree is what we need

[@evanrutherfordlazyahole9079]

I'm hoping so I've always loved metals and mining but it really is damaging to the environment especially separation from

[@evanrutherfordlazyahole9079]

Impurities

[@justlisten82]

Everytime I see the Bloomberg logo, I think about Palantir. Just me?

[@ryccoh]

Why does the hyper accumulator accumulate these metals on their leaves?

[@WestOfEarth]

Likely used in one of its biological processes. Humans are bioaccumulators of metals, albeit it very inefficient. Small traces of elements like copper are used in the body, as well as zinc and others. These plants accumulate metals for the same reasons, though if they're being bred to increase their efficiency, they will likely end up storing far more metals than their biological processes need.

[@sinhnguyen4815]

First, you want to obtain a DNA. Then, you can mess with the nutrients. These individual processes are definitely what you understand more deeply than conventional processes that a lot of people have talked against. I definitely love the idea of mining for these metals at home.

[@Veganul]

1 of the best news in 3rd milenium, yet not sure we catch 2050 ☢🌎☣

[@noobian3314]

What plant can i use to mine bitcoin?

[@heavymetalbassist5]

a lot of those were succulents, they take forever to get big

[@satyabratasatapathy6615]

Well not a new concept , ancient Bharatiya people used to mine mercury from Tulsi plant.

[@knightshade6232]

Im in the Philippines I'm very much afraid that most mining projects laid in the current admin in my country are being push through... Some tribal leaders are also being targeted for not supporting the said projects