Biophytometallurgy: biomining metals from plant resources

Authors

Dailey, D. A., Hernandez-Pagan, E., Bailey, S., Bavaresco, S. T., Raffaele, N. E., Piatt-Price, A., Carneiro, J. S. A., Austin, R. N., Doherty, C. J., Banta, S.

Abstract

The physicochemical controls governing metal acquisition, release, and redistribution across biological interfaces remain poorly understood. Biophytometallurgy--the microbially assisted release and recovery of plant-associated metals--was used to probe the directionality of the mechanisms controlling nickel and rare earth element (REE) release from Phytolacca during solid-liquid extraction. Bulk characterization did not support a dominant crystalline REE-phosphate-like host in hydroponically enriched shoots. Dissolution and rebinding experiments instead revealed chemically accessible nickel and REE pools, the latter of which had behaviors consistent with apparent equilibrium-like partitioning under mildly acidic conditions. During sulfur biooxidation, Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans promoted REE release while providing a competing cell-associated REE sink. Consequently, aqueous REE concentrations reflected net redistribution among the separable plant, solution, and microbial phases instead of dissolution alone. These results establish a framework for studying metal partitioning across complex and coupled biological systems and support a route for aqueous REE recovery from plants without thermochemical conversion to ash.

Preprint server: bioRxiv
The authors list and abstract were imported from bioRxiv on 29 Aug 2026.

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