Tapping mineral wealth in mining waste could offset damage from new green economy mines – by Anita Parbhakar-Fox, Kamini Bhowany, Kristy Guerin, Laura Jackson and Partha Narayan Mishra (The Conversation – May 30, 2022)

https://theconversation.com/

To go green, the world will need vast quantities of critical minerals such as manganese, lithium, cobalt and rare earth elements. But to some environmentalists, mining to save the planet is a hard pill to swallow if it leads to damage to pristine areas.

The good news is that in many cases, the mining for these minerals has already been done. After Australia’s major miners dig up iron ore, billions of tonnes of earth and rock are left over. Hidden in these rock piles and tailing dams are minerals vital to high tech industries of today and tomorrow.

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Sudbury’s tailings ponds could hold key to easing EV battery shortage, researcher says (CBC News Sudbury – May 29, 2022)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/

Metal-eating bacteria could help extract $7B-$10B worth of minerals at Copper Cliff

The key to supplying the automotive industry with enough electric vehicle batteries may rest in a toxic eyesore: Sudbury’s vast tailings ponds.

Tailings are the waste material left over from ore extraction processes — often mixed with water and stored in ponds. But for several years, the potential for leaks of toxic substances into the surrounding environment has raised concerns about these tailings and questions about what, if anything, can be done with them.

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The Drift: Could Sudbury be a global leader in ‘green’ mining? – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – May 25, 2022)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Toronto’s Bactech Environmental and Sudbury’s MIRARCO want to mine nickel, cobalt and iron the natural way

Sudbury may be on the cusp of an innovative new phase in its 40-year regreening effort. What an army of volunteer tree planters once accomplished to reforest a barren landscape, blackened by a century of nickel roasting and smelting, now a swarm of microscopic bugs could provide in an environmentally friendly solution to clean up a massive amount of mined waste rock while recovering valuable minerals in the process.

BacTech Environmental Corp., a Toronto green technology company, is pulling a proven technology out of mothballs to relaunch it in Sudbury to “liberate” millions of dollars worth of battery-grade metals out of mine tailings through a proprietary bioleaching process.

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[Partner Content] Tech update: A tiny solution that could lighten the impact of mining; a new platform that encourages the hiring of Black professionals; and other news – by Janey Llewellin (Toronto Star – February 10, 2022)

https://www.thestar.com/

As the production of electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines ramps up, so too does the demand for “green” minerals. (In fact, the World Bank predicts that production of such minerals as lithium, cobalt and graphite will increase by nearly 500 per cent by 2050.) Yet traditional means of extraction often exacts a heavy toll on the environment. To lighten the impact, some companies are turning to a tiny solution: microbes found underground.

A new initiative with Canada’s Digital Technology Supercluster is looking to identify helpful microbes that can replace the use of chemicals in mining and site remediation. The project aims to build a repository of microbes and geochemical data by extracting the DNA from more than 15,000 mining sites.

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New project promotes using microbes in mining – by Olivia Johnson (CIM Magazine – February 1, 2022)

https://magazine.cim.org/en/

The database of microbes and geochemical data will be used to build new and sustainable technology in the mining industry

On Feb. 1, Canada’s Digital Technology Supercluster, an organization that focuses on accelerating digital technology innovation, launched the Mining Microbiome Analysis Platform (MMAP) project. The project will build a repository of microbes and geochemical data, using samples collected from more than 15,000 mining sites.

MMAP is led by Teck Resources in partnership with the University of British Columbia (UBC), BGC Engineering, Koonkie Canada, Rio Tinto, Genome BC, Allonnia, Microsoft and the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI). Over the next two years, the online platform will extract DNA from mining-site samples and identify microbes that can be used to implement microbial-based resource extraction and new mine-site bioremediation processes.

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Scientists want to engineer bacteria to sustainability mine rare earths – by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud (Mining.com – November 21, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

A new study published in Nature Communications describes a proof of principle for engineering a bacterium, Gluconobacter oxydans, that takes a first step towards meeting skyrocketing rare earth element demand in a way that matches the cost and efficiency of traditional thermochemical extraction and refinement methods and is clean enough to meet US environmental standards.

“We’re trying to come up with an environmentally friendly, low-temperature, low-pressure method for getting rare earth elements out of a rock,” Buz Barstow, the paper’s senior author and an assistant professor at Cornell University, said in a media statement.

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Chilean scientist plans to clean up mining with ‘metal eating’ bacteria – by Paula Bustamante (Phys.org – October 2021)

https://phys.org/

Starving microorganisms capable of surviving in extreme conditions have already managed to “eat” a nail in just three days. In Chile, a scientist is testing “metal-eating” bacteria she hopes could help clean up the country’s highly-polluting mining industry.

In her laboratory in Antofagasta, an industrial town 1,100-kilometers north of Santiago, 33-year-old biotechnologist Nadac Reales has been carrying out tests with extremophiles—organisms that live in extreme environments.

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What mining, oil and gas industries can learn from Sudbury, the city that went from major polluter to thriving environment – by Nadia Mykytczuk (The Conversation – August 25, 2021)

https://theconversation.com/

Nadia Mykytczuk is the Interim CEO/President of MIRARCO, Laurentian University.

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg in Montréal two years ago, he promised to plant two billion trees by 2030 to help Canada meet its net-zero emissions goal.

Planting trees, however, is hard work. It takes money and planning. But a re-greening roadmap exists.

Sudbury, the largest city in Northern Ontario, transformed itself after decades of environmental devastation, brought on by the mining industry. Other communities and industries, like oil and gas, can replicate the city’s efforts to aid in global efforts to fight climate change.

A devastated landscape

For almost 100 years, Sudbury’s community and environment were blanketed in sulfur dioxide and metals released from the smelting of nickel ore.

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Laurentian researcher named strategic advisor for ‘green’ miner’s South American endeavors – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – August 16, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Nadia Mykytczuk named to BacTech Environmental’s strategic advisory board

Laurentian University microbiologist Nadia Mykytczuk has been named to the strategic advisory board of BacTech Environmental, a Toronto ‘green’ mining technology company with ambitious plans to recover precious metals in South America.

For the past 15 years, Mykytczuk has worked in the field of mine waste microbiology and is considered an expert in biomining and bioremediation.

Her research at Laurentian, primarily focuses on cultivating microbes to break down toxic material at mine waste sites and harness them to extract precious metals.

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Dr. Nadia Mykytczuk – Mine remediation expert appointed CEO of MIRARCO in Sudbury – by Darren MacDonald (CTV News Northern Ontario – June 28, 2021)

https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/

SUDBURY — Dr. Nadia Mykytczuk has been named the interim president and CEO of MIRARCO in Sudbury.

MIRARCO is a mining research group that works to develop sustainable, long-term practices and technology for the industry. As interim CEO, Mykytczuk will provide support to the Goodman School of Mines at Laurentian University.

An environmental microbiologist, she received the Laurentian University Innovation Award in 2018, which is awarded to a researcher whose work has resulted in an innovative technology, process or product that benefits both the university community and society at large.

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Restructuring overlooks important environmental legacy: critics – by Hugh Kruzel (Sudbury Star – April 30, 2021)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Laurentian is cutting environmental science, environmental studies, ecology and restoration biology programs as it works to balance its books

Sudbury has garnered a reputation around the world as a community that knows how to recover an environment degraded by mining and smelting operations. Most of that know-how was developed by Laurentian University researchers — expertise that will be lost as the university restructures, critics warn.

Laurentian is cutting environmental science, environmental studies, ecology and restoration biology programs – among many others – as part of a process to balance its books.

The university is insolvent, can’t pay its bills and has filed for protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act as it restructures. So far, it has cut almost 200 jobs and 69 programs. Many, however, say cuts are a severe blow to the reputation of Sudbury as a leader in landscape revitalization.

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Laurentian University cuts world-renowned programs – by Albrecht I. Schulte-Hostedde (Sudbury Star – April 28, 2021)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Sudbury is known as the city of lakes and for its famous regreening programs, yet university is slashing expertise in those areas as it restructures

Among the programs closed in Laurentian University’s “restructuring” were environmental science, environmental studies, ecology and restoration biology.

In a city of lakes, where Sophie Mathur has galvanized global youth around the climate crisis, where the regreening of the region has reached near mythological status, an undergraduate student cannot enter into an environmental or ecology program at Laurentian University.

Think about that. Why were Laurentian’s environmental and ecology programs closed?

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Laurentian University cuts could put groundbreaking mine waste research in jeopardy – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – April 17, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Insolvency proceeding put acclaimed biomining project and pilot plant on the brink of extinction

One of the world’s top experts in mine waste cleanup was one of the casualties of the massive and deep program and job cuts at Laurentian University this week.

Dr. Nadia Mykytczuk, highly regarded as a microbiologist in bioleaching and mine remediation, was among more than 100 faculty and staff who received virtual pink slips on April 16 as part of the ongoing insolvency proceedings at the Sudbury university.

Laurentian’s School of Environment and staff and faculty at its Vale Living with Lakes Centre took a major hit among the 58 undergraduate and 11 graduate programs cut.

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Global mine reclamation expert to be given honorary doctorate by Laurentian University – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – October 28, 2020)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Ecological engineer Margarete Kalin-Seidenfaden worked in Northern Ontario mine tailings projects

A pioneer in applying the principles of ecological engineering to tackle contaminated mine waste sites will be recognized by Laurentian University at its fall convocation ceremony.

Margarete Kalin-Seidenfaden will be presented with an honorary doctor of science on Oct.31.

Her career as an environmental consultant includes co-founding Boojum Research in 1982, a Toronto R & D firm specializing in ecologically-based treatment systems.

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