Scientists at the University of York are to lead an
international team that will explore the use of plants to recover precious
metals from mine tailings around the world.
Researchers in the University’ s Green Chemistry Centre of
Excellence and the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP) aim to develop ways to extract platinum group
metals (PGM) discarded during mine processing which might then be used in
catalysis. The research will investigate “phyto-mining,” which involves growing
plants on mine waste materials to sponge up PGM into their cellular structure.