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Tue, Aug 11, 2020
5:00 pm – 6:30 pm AEST
Bacterially accelerated weathering and mineral carbonation of kimberlite; and other exciting things happing at the UQ geomicrobiology lab.
The roles of microbes within the mining and environmental industries has increased significantly in recent decades, and with an increasing expectation on these companies to lower their carbon footprint, biotechnological methods that enhance extraction and processing may provide novel approaches. In my PhD research, understanding microbe-mineral interactions occurring between biofilms and ultra-mafic mine tailings may provide strategies to accelerate mineral bioweathering and microbial carbonate precipitation within mine-scale kimberlite waste rock.
Microorganisms have the ability to enhance mineral weathering, impacting the environments they inhabit via the extraction of nutrients from their surroundings. Physiological processes that enhance weathering include the formation of organic and inorganic acids that work to break down minerals, as well as the production of bicarbonate ions. which buffers pH. Kimberlite waste rock deposits provide an excellent natural laboratory to study large-scale weathering, bacteria-mineral interactions, and mineral carbonation reactions that sequester atmospheric CO2. The aim of the present study is to promote weathering and mineral carbonation within tailings material from the Venetia diamond mine, Limpopo, ZAF, via the inoculation of a native microbial consortia.
Thomas Jones is a Ph.D. candidate in Geomicrobiology at The University of Queensland, with a background in exploration geology and seismic surveying. His current research looks at how microbes can potentially be used throughout the mining life cycle; from exploration to mineral processing to remediation, including REE extraction in Australia and kimberlite weathering/bio-carbonation in South Africa.
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