Metalplant’s nickel harvest was featured in the July 13-19, 2024 Print issue of New Scientist magazine: “On a recent afternoon in northern Albania, workers gathered armfuls of freshly cut shrubs covered in yellow flowers, leaving them to dry in the sun.
This was no ordinary harvest, however. The farm is both a mine, growing plants that accumulate nickel metal in their leaves and stems, and a carbon sink, its soil spread with crushed rocks that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere…
The idea of mining with plants isn’t new. But Metalplant is combining this “phytomining” with a method of removing CO2 from the atmosphere called enhanced rock weathering, which involves spreading rock dust on fields. This dust can both capture CO2 and replenish the nickel taken up by the plants.”
