Microbiologists in Canada have managed to isolate a substance that allows an unusual bacterium to convert gold ions into solid gold particles - the technique used by the microbe could one day be used to recover gold from mine waste, or even from the open ocean.
The aquatic bacterium Delftia acidovarans, report in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, uses the substance "delftibactin" to remove gold ions, which have toxic effects, from water.
The ions are thus converted into solid particles of elemental gold which form a layer on the surfaces where the bacteria live.
The discovery was made by Dr. Nathan McGarvey and his colleagues at McMaster University in Canada, who were quick to patent the gold isolation technique with deltivactin.
They hope to commercially exploit the substance to exploit waste from gold mines, which contain ions that cannot be recovered with current technologies.
Later the same could be done in ocean water, which contains gold in a ratio of one to a few trillion.
