“This could shift how we think about mining in the future,” said Metalplant Co-Founder Eric Matzner in discussing how hyperaccumulator plants offer a new method to recover metals from unconventional soils and economical ways. By using the power of photosynthesis and plants’ natural ability to selectively draw up elements from soils, hyperaccumulator plants are able to concentrate nickel much more efficiently than what otherwise would take billions of dollars of capital expenses in huge facilities that uses heat, energy, and emissions intensive processes to purify nickel.
The United States lacks conventional nickel resources, such as weathered clay, nickel laterites typical of regions like Indonesia, from where over 50% of global nickel production originates from today. The U.S., however, has vast swaths of nickel-bearing soils in northern California and southern Oregon. Phytomining technology gives the United States a method by which to make these soils economically viable. This is why the Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) created a $9.9M opportunity that funded teams to increase innovation in phytomining to help spur a domestic phytomining industry, including the topics of sterility/containment and increased yields.
Metalplant and partner Verinomics were awarded $1.72 million to take the native Albanian hyperaccumulator species that Metalplant utilizes in their farms in Albania, and safely domesticate them to the United States. Metalplant selected their species of hyperaccumulator because it is high-nickel, with over 2% nickel in some cases, and also because it is fast-growing and high-biomass. These same traits could cause the plant to be considered a pest when competing against native species that grow in naturally nickel-bearing soils.
To overcome this, Metalplant has been funded to use non-GMO genetic editing to improve the plant species to become sterile, meaning it won’t produce viable seeds or offspring. While the company is working on those traits, the team will select traits that should increase nickel yields significantly. The US government has wisely selected to fund the most important elements to bring commercial phytomining back to the United States and Metalplant is working hard to make that a reality.
Check out the full article in the Wall Street Journal – The New Weapon Against China’s Mineral Dominance: Plants
