Mining metal with plants
We enhance plants' natural biology to renewably mine nickel.
Nickel and other metals are critical to electrification, but mining them is slow and dirty.
One of the most polluting industries
The current target of GHG reduction published by mining companies range from 0 to 30 percent by 2030, far below the Paris Agreement goals.
Long term environmental degradation
Digging up an underground or open-pit nickel mine can take up to 15 years just to become operational. After a few years of resource extraction, it can take 10+ years to close the mine and many decades more to remediate it.
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Unable to match future metal needs
Hitting the 2040 goals set out by the Paris Agreement will require 6x today's global metal output. IAE forecast a 19x nickel demand increase.
1. Enhance plants' natural biology.
We use synthetic biology to improve these plants' ability to efficiently and economically extract metals while remediating land along the way.
2. Identify metal-rich fields and mine tailings.
We identify soils with nickel concentrations that cannot be economically extracted using traditional mining methods. These include mine tailings as well as fields with toxic levels of nickel and other heavy metals.
3. Plant and harvest hyperaccumulators.
We optimise the plant growth by enhancing the microbiome, allowing to harvest in a few months without the use of synthetic fertilizer and other harsh agricultural.
4. Recover metal from biomass.
We recover metal from biomass by combining different techniques, including bioleaching and electrolysis, to form metal cathodes. Our downstream processing involves no GHG emissions and is environmentally friendly.
Well, you are right. For more details, feel free to reach out!
Our partners talk about us
Genomines represents everything we love in an early stage company: two brilliant founders, a huge and inspiring mission and world-leading technology. We feel lucky to have been investors from the very beginning
Entrepreneur First - EF
Genomines and its founding team has the most ambitious vision and promising technology to revolutionize the mining industry and significantly decrease its impact on the environment
INRA
The energy transition requires an unprecedented increase in the production capacity of critical metals and the discovery of new deposits, the commissioning of which will take many years.
And you’re damn right! Contact us here.
