In 2019 we discovered some fungi capable of metabolizing gold. There are already those who want to make it the key to space mining

The story Start more than five years ago In Boddington, south of the Australian city of Perth. Over there, Between murderous animals and gold mines, a team of researchers from the Australian Csiro discovered something truly rare: that certain fungus strains Fusarium oxysporum Not only could they extract gold from its surroundings and integrate it into their structure, but in doing so they managed to spread faster than the rest.

It seemed a curiosity without more, but in recent years the situation has begun to change.

But, a moment, why is something so “weird”? Good question. After all, we know of good ink that fungi “play an essential role in degradation and recycling of all types of organic material (Like leaves or bark), but also in the cycle of certain metals such as aluminum, iron, manganese and calcium. “Why would it be different with gold?

Because, as Tsing Bohu explained, a researcher in charge of the project, “Gold is so inactive (chemically speaking) that this type of interactions is unusual and surprising, he had to see him to believe it.” And he saw it.

In fact, lo published in Nature Communications. It was the first solid evidence that fungi could have a relevant role in the gold cycle in the earth’s crust.

The “mushroom” of golden eggs. Quickly the mining industry put his eyes on the investigation. Especially right there, in Australia. The continent island is the second largest gold producer in the world, but The consensus among analysts It is that without new deposits the production was going to fall (and much) in a short time.

Initially, the industry thought that CSIRO’s investigation could serve to locate these new deposits. As we explained years agoin Australia it is relatively common to do prospects in forests of the Aucaliptos family or near termites because they have a close relationship with the precious metal. Why not analyze the land in search of those strains of Fusarium oxysporum?

But there is one more possibility. As Eduardo Bazo explained to Eugenio Fernández In a very interesting interviewin recent years there have appeared companies that work on what we could call “Metabolic mining“That is, in using organisms to extract gold.

“And what do you want that?” You could ask. “Isn’t it easier to identify where gold is and extract with industrial methods?” Yes, here on earth, yes. But these companies look a little further: in space mining.

For years we have talked about the existence of huge mineral deposits in the solar system and, for almost the same, We have fantasized to be able to exploit them. The problem is that, Beyond the current technological limitationsS, to the danger of normal mining, is added the fact that we talk about processing metal in space.

But and if we use ‘metabolic mining’? The idea of ​​sending modified strains of these fungi (or other microorganisms) that They will process the mineral for useverything would become easier. I don’t know if more viable, but simpler.

It is much less rare than it seems (this type of approaches we use to innumerable products that we usually use), however to take it to the world of mining seems a little more complex by pure efficiency. However, that’s ‘now’.

While I write (and while The era of cheap materials ends) Several research groups They are cultivating all kinds of microorganisms with the idea of ​​being able to grow gold sooner rather than later.

Image | Dominik Vanyi | Jaap Straydo

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