US-South Africa Workshop: Biotechnological Applications of Deep Subsurface Microbial Investigations to Deep Mining; Bloemfontein, South Africa, November 2000

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OnstottINT-0080581This award supports the participation of seven US scientists in a US-South Africa Workshop on Biotechnological Applications of Deep Subsurface Microbial Investigations to Deep Mining, scheduled for November 2000 at the University of the Orange Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. The organizers are Tullis C. Onstott, Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, and Rudy Boer and Frank Hodgeson of the Institute for Ground Water Studies and Department of Geology, University of the Orange Free State. The workshop is a result of earlier investigations by scientists from the United States, Canada, Sweden, and South Africa into microorganisms associated with deeply-buried rocks and groundwater of the ultradeep gold mines of South Africa. The goal of that research was to determine whether these mines, which extend more than 3 km below the land surface, offer ready access to indigenous, subsurface microbial communities and whether radiolysis of groundwater provides a nutrient source for the microorganisms. The PI subsequently received a 5-year LExEn (Life in Extreme Environments) grant from the National Science Foundation to pursue this investigation into the origin of "fissure" water and the in situ rates of microbial oxidation and reduction in mining boreholes.The main themes of the workshop are: ground water, hazardous gasses, air quality, in situ leaching, borehole technology, and education and training. As part of the latter, the participants will develop educational and field training programs for historically disadvantaged populations in South Africa as part of a capacity building agenda. The workshop will bring together US and South African researchers in universities and government institutes with mining engineers in private industry to discuss research results and explore future collaboration and will also establish a bridge between the PI's LExEn project and South African biotechnology development programs that are mining oriented.