Bioprospecting for sustainable mineral management

这个项目调查了利用微生物获取这些金属的可能性，并帮助满足社会的供应需求。要做到这一点，我们需要找到已经能够在金属丰富的环境中生存并能够移动金属的细菌和真菌，以便我们能够浓缩和利用金属。要寻找的地方正是金属存在的矿山废弃地。这些地点的微生物在富含金属的环境中进化，并利用涉及金属的反应中释放的能量进行生长。一旦我确定了微生物种群的特征，我将进行实验室实验，以确定这些地点存在的哪些微生物可以用于加工和浓缩废物中存在的金属，使其成为适合下游技术应用的可获得和浓缩的形式。

This project investigates the potential to use microorganisms to access these metals and help meet the supply demands of society.To do this we need to find bacteria and fungi that already have the ability to survive in metal-rich environments and which are able to mobilise the metals, so that we can then concentrate the metals and use them.The place to look is the very mine waste sites where the metals are present. Microbes at these sites have evolved in metal-rich environments and exploit the energy released during reactions involving the metals for growth. Once I have characterised the microbial populations I will carry out laboratory-based experiments to determine which of the microbes present at these sites can be used to process and concentrate the metals present in the wastes into an accessible and concentrated form suitable for down-stream technological application.