It has been thought in the mine exploration business for years thatthere must exist a biological pathway active in moving water that isable to mobilize gold and also coagulate it to form larger goldcomplexes. The gold nuggets were forming in environments that justhad never gotten hot enough to satisfy the known volcanic process.
It may turn out the gold is primarily bio available rather than inany other manner. Much gold deposition I have inspected could bebetter so explained.
At least we now have the sought for medium identified and it is easyto take it forward. And yes it is good sense to inoculateneutralized mine tailings to collect the residual gold which is nevertrivial.
Scientists discoverbacteria that can make gold out of mine waste
Cecilia Jamasmie |February 5, 2013
http://www.mining.com/scientists-discover-bacteria-that-can-make-gold-out-of-mine-waste-57405/
A group of scientistshas identified a bacterium that turns toxic water-soluble gold intomicroscopic nuggets of the solid precious metal, reveals the paperpublished Monday in Nature Chemical Biology.
The finding solves amystery that for decades has intrigued biochemists, which is why theDelftia acidovorans germ is frequently found on the surface of tinygold nuggets.
Nathan Magarvey ofMcMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, and his team grew a colonyof this microorganism, and conducted tests to determine how itproduces the molecular-sized gold nuggets outside its cell wall. Thegroup concluded the answer lies in a molecule excreted by the microbethat both shields the organism and transforms the poisonous ions intoparticles.
In other words, itprotects itself by turning its environment to gold.
“This finding is thefirst demonstration that a secreted metabolite can protect againsttoxic gold and cause gold biomineralization,” the process by whichliving organisms produce minerals, they wrote in the journal.
Frank Reith, amicrobiologist at the University of Adelaide in Australia, whose workon gold-processing bacteria was a touchstone for Magarvey's team,told Nature, the finding opens up the possibility of using abacterium or metabolite to seed waste-drop piles, leave them standingfor years, and see if bigger gold particles form.
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