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Phytoremediation pp 469–486Cite as

Phytomining of Rare and Valuable Metals

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Abstract

The exponential growth of low-grade mining ores and metal-polluted soils around the world during the last decades is expected to continue at a higher rate in the foreseeable future. Yet, the strategic and commercial importance of some elements found in those sub-economic ores and soils, their elevated market prices, and the corresponding environmental concerns have opened a window of opportunity for phytomining. This phytoextraction-based technology uses the ability of certain plants to uptake valuable metals, producing a bio-ore from the harvested biomass that allows metal recovery through smelting. Once applied at large scale, phytomining may either function as a standalone operation to retrieve the desired element or jointly with phytoremediation, financing the costs of the latter. This chapter reviews the advances of phytomining since its inception in the 1990s, focusing on the results obtained to date, with gold, nickel, thallium, and rhenium.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under grant No. SFRH/BPD/103476/2014.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geosciences, GeoBioTec Research Center, University of Aveiro, Campus de Santiago, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal

    Luís A. B. Novo Ph.D. & Eduardo Ferreira da Silva Ph.D.

  2. Faculty of Biotechnology, Centre of Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry, Catholic University of Portugal, 4200-072, Porto, Portugal

    Paula M. L. Castro Ph.D.

  3. Department of Technologies and Applied Sciences, School of Agriculture, Polytechnic Institute of Beja, Beja, 7800-295, Portugal

    Paula Alvarenga Ph.D.

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  1. Luís A. B. Novo Ph.D.
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  4. Eduardo Ferreira da Silva Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Luís A. B. Novo Ph.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Tabuk, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia

    Abid A. Ansari

  2. Centre for Biotechnology, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana, India

    Sarvajeet Singh Gill

  3. Centre for Biotechnology, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana, India

    Ritu Gill

  4. College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York, Syracuse, New York, USA

    Guy R. Lanza

  5. College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York, Syracuse, New York, USA

    Lee Newman

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Novo, L.A.B., Castro, P.M.L., Alvarenga, P., da Silva, E.F. (2017). Phytomining of Rare and Valuable Metals. In: Ansari, A., Gill, S., Gill, R., R. Lanza, G., Newman, L. (eds) Phytoremediation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52381-1_18

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