Alternative methods of extracting metals

• What is copper used for?

  Electrical wiring, electronic equipment and industrial machinery.
• A metal ore contains enough metal to _____?

  Make it economical enough to extract it.
• What is happening to copper ores?

  They are becoming scarce, meaning we have to extract copper from low-grade ores.
• What are low-grade ores like?

  Contain a very small amount of copper meaning it’s harder to extract the copper economically from these ores.
• What happens in phytomining?

  Plants are grown on land which contain the metal compound we want, these plants absorb the metal compound and they concentrate it in their tissue. The plants are then harvested and burned, at the end, the ash contains a relatively high concentration of the metal compound.
• What happens in Bioleaching?

  Bacteria are mixed with the low-grade ore, the bacteria carry out chemical reactions and produce a solution called a leachate which contains the metal compound we want.
• Once you've collected the copper compound from either phytomining or bioleaching, how do you extract the metal from the compound?

  For copper, we displace it using iron as it is more reactive than copper, we typically use scrap iron which is cheaper. We can also extract the copper using electrolysis.
• What does phytomining and bioleaching allow us to do?

  Allow us to economically extract metals from low-grade ores which is important as the Earths resources of metal ores are limited. Also these methods do not involve digging, transporting/disposing of large amounts of rock unlike in traditional mining.