Before orbital laser drills are obtained, mass producing certain elements simply from ores will not be enough to meet resource demands. Constantly moving ore drills to new deposits can also get boring. However, with a bit of genetic engineering, organisms can be used to extract massive amounts of trace elements from rocks, dirt and other common substances.
Process
This uses a normal greenhouse process, where the contaminated soil, rock, or water is used to grow the hyperaccumulating organism, which is usually a GMO species of flower or tree. Once the organism is mature, it is harvested, and the collected materials are separated from the tissue of the organism. This can be made more efficient by GMO, and can infinitely mass produce certain materials from an infinite supply of contaminated materials such as sand, industrial wastewater, seawater, extraterrestrial soil, radioactive dirt, and normal dirt, rather than relying on ore deposits. GMO bacteria can be added to the soil to enhance material absorption.
To extract the metals from plant material, the harvested plants are pulverized and burnt to produce a metal-rich ash. This ash is then digested with nitric acid to make a solution with the metal nitrates. All the different types of metal nitrates are extracted from this solution using liquid-liquid extraction, based on what the nitrates are soluble in. Solubility data is easily found on wikipedia. The nitrates can then be converted to pure metal using chemistry.
Materials extracted from soil
Agrostis castellana (tall grass)
Arsenic, manganese, lead, zinc
Brassica napus (rapeseed)
Chrome, mercury, lead, selenium, zinc, silver
Pteris vittata (chinese brake fern)
lots of arsenic
Brassica juncea (indian mustard)
cadmium, chrome, copper, nickel, lead, uranium, selenium and zinc
Summary
Before orbital laser drills are obtained, mass producing certain elements simply from ores will not be enough to meet resource demands. Constantly moving ore drills to new deposits can also get boring. However, with a bit of genetic engineering, organisms can be used to extract massive amounts of trace elements from rocks, dirt and other common substances.
Process
This uses a normal greenhouse process, where the contaminated soil, rock, or water is used to grow the hyperaccumulating organism, which is usually a GMO species of flower or tree. Once the organism is mature, it is harvested, and the collected materials are separated from the tissue of the organism. This can be made more efficient by GMO, and can infinitely mass produce certain materials from an infinite supply of contaminated materials such as sand, industrial wastewater, seawater, extraterrestrial soil, radioactive dirt, and normal dirt, rather than relying on ore deposits. GMO bacteria can be added to the soil to enhance material absorption.
To extract the metals from plant material, the harvested plants are pulverized and burnt to produce a metal-rich ash. This ash is then digested with nitric acid to make a solution with the metal nitrates. All the different types of metal nitrates are extracted from this solution using liquid-liquid extraction, based on what the nitrates are soluble in. Solubility data is easily found on wikipedia. The nitrates can then be converted to pure metal using chemistry.
Materials extracted from soil
Agrostis castellana (tall grass)
Brassica napus (rapeseed)
Pteris vittata (chinese brake fern)
Brassica juncea (indian mustard)
Thlaspi caerulescens (pennycress)
Wheat
Bassia scoparia (ragweed)
Brassica juncea (mustard flowers)
Thlaspi cypricum
Red maple
Sunflower
Amaranthus retroflexus
Materials extracted from water
Eichhornia crassipes (hyacinth)
Salvinia molesta (water fern)
Duckweed
Bacopa monnieri
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hyperaccumulators https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperaccumulators_table_%E2%80%93_3