Canadian project tailors microbes to extract gold without harming environment

A Canada’s New Brunswick research, development and technical services company is applying the science of genes to the job of extracting gold in a faster, more efficient and cleaner way.

Genomics studies the genetic material of humans and others species, including the genetic makeup of microbes found in the soil and rock that carries gold. And now that knowledge is being used in a project by Fredericton-based RPC for Genome Atlantic and a Canadian mining company.

Neri Botha, an extractive metallurgist with RPC, talked about the project during the 2016 Mining Society of Nova Scotia’s annual general meeting in Halifax on June 10.

She said the project will utilize the bacteria found in gold ore to improve oxidization, a technique used to extract minerals from the ore.

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