Copper: Humanity’s first and most important future metal
Millions of feet of copper wiring will be required for strengthening the world’s power grids, and hundreds of thousands of tonnes more are needed to build wind and solar farms.
BBC News reports on new technology used for mining copper in Chile. Biosigma, a joint venture between Codelco and Nippon Metals and Mining, is experimenting with microbes that break down copper at higher recovery rates and reduce operating costs:
“We know that conventional mining methods are not used for low-grade materials that simply get dumped – so the only way to get copper from them is by using new knowledge and capacities – in this case, biotech,” says Ricardo Badilla, chief executive of Biosigma.
Using bacteria can result in extracting as much as 90% of the total metal at a pit mine, instead of merely 60%, he adds.
Comments
mazijojo
at what reaction rates?