Biotechnology applications in mining

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This is an interdisciplinary study aimed at developing biotechnologies that can be used to separate particles of economic minerals. One concept is to identify peptides (sequences of amino acids) that will bind to minerals of economic interest in slurry of mineral particles derived from an orebody. The peptides cause a change in the surface properties of the minerals to which they are attached which allows a selective method for separation of the economic minerals from un-economic minerals. Different methods for identifying these binding peptides will be investigated.