Trend Biomining: using microorganisms to recover critical minerals

Summary

The report says the energy transition needs vast amounts of minerals, yet scaling conventional mining at that pace could worsen known environmental and social harms, which is fuelling interest in alternatives. Biomining draws on the natural ability of microbes to interact with minerals and change their chemistry, using the metabolism of bacteria, fungi or archaea to dissolve ores and then recovering metals from the resulting solution. It has been used at industrial scale for copper for decades and also in processing some gold ores. Interest now extends to nickel, cobalt, rare earths and material in spent batteries and electronic waste, linking it to a circular economy that turns environmental liabilities into secondary raw materials. The processes are slow, laboratory results do not always scale and the environmental footprint is not zero. The report expects biomining not to replace conventional mining but to serve as a useful tool for tapping low-grade deposits and cutting waste.