French Startup Uses GM Plants to Mine Nickel—Without Digging

**Share** **Pin** **WhatsApp** **Share** **Email** **Print** **Peter Laufmann, our website** **Phytomining is a promising method to extract rare metals. A startup uses daisies to extract nickel.**

How about mining without drilling a hole in the ground or rock? The French startup Genomines has set itself this goal. **They want to use genetically modified plants to extract metals from the soil.** And there's more to the technology. Because it has long been known that plants can help to also detoxify contaminated soils. Contaminated fields could be usable again for agriculture.

Genetically modified composite flowers

Primarily, this company has the extraction of metals in mind. Their method, according to the French company, has advantages over traditional mining, which is often slow, expensive, and environmentally damaging. "Genomines enables the production of metal in a decentralized, competitive, and environmentally friendly way compared to the mining industry. Above all, it is a technology that enables more modular metal production," says one of the founders, Fabien Koutchekian.

2.5 tons of metal harvested from the field

The process behind it is as simple as everyday: plants collect substances from the soil and store them. Genomines uses genetically modified relatives of the daisy and the sunflower. **They are called hyperaccumulators and take up metal ions from nickel-rich soils via their roots.**

Up to 7.6 percent of the entire plant biomass can be nickel. The plants are usually harvested after six months and yield up to 2.5 tons of nickel per hectare and year.

**After harvesting, the metal is obtained using a combination of various techniques.** This includes bioleaching and heating. In bioleaching, microorganisms such as bacteria or archaea dissolve metals from ores or waste products. In the other process, the plant material is heated in the absence of oxygen. This prevents CO2 emissions.

150,000 tons of bio-nickel

By 2030, Genomines wants to produce 150,000 tons of bio-nickel annually, which would be enough for the batteries of up to three million electric cars. **According to company statements, current customers already include car manufacturers such as Hyundai and Jaguar Land Rover.** There are also partnerships to convert mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) into nickel sulfate hexahydrate (NSH) for the production of battery precursors. In a new funding round, Genomines has raised 45 million dollars.

Plants as metal extractors

Thanks to such phytomining, soils that are otherwise too toxic for agriculture can be rehabilitated. **Worldwide, there are around 700 plant species known to be suitable for this purpose.** They can extract rare metals for which there are only a few large deposits. However, their capacity is often limited. Only genetically modified variants are able to collect profitable amounts of metal.

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* **Flowers** * **Hard metal**

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