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

OnstottINT-0080581该奖项资助七名美国科学家参加定于2000年11月在南非布隆方丹橙子自由州大学举行的美国-南非关于深层地下微生物调查在深层采矿中的生物技术应用的讲习班。 组织者是Tullis C。Onstott，普林斯顿大学地球科学系，以及橙子自由州大学地下水研究所和地质系的Rudy Boer和Frank Hodgeson。该研讨会是来自美国、加拿大、瑞典和南非的科学家对南非超深金矿深埋岩石和地下水中的微生物进行早期调查的结果。 这项研究的目的是确定这些延伸到地表以下3公里以上的矿井是否能够随时接触到当地的地下微生物群落，以及地下水的辐射分解是否为微生物提供了营养源。 PI随后获得了美国国家科学基金会为期5年的LExEn（极端环境下的生命）资助，以继续对“裂隙”水的起源以及采矿钻孔中微生物氧化和还原的原位速率进行调查。研讨会的主题是：地下水、有害气体、空气质量、原位沥滤、钻孔技术以及教育和培训。 作为后者的一部分，与会者将为南非历史上处于不利地位的人口制定教育和实地培训方案，作为能力建设议程的一部分。 该研讨会将汇集美国和南非大学和政府机构的研究人员与私营企业的采矿工程师，讨论研究成果并探索未来的合作，还将在PI的LExEn项目和南非面向采矿的生物技术开发计划之间建立桥梁。

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.