Australian researchers are adapting medical technology used to target cancer cells to recover critical and rare earth minerals, in a breakthrough that could transform the mining industry’s environmental footprint.
The University of Adelaide is leading the work in collaboration with the University of Newcastle and industry partners through the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Enabling Eco-Efficient Beneficiation of Minerals (COEMinerals).
Professor Chun-Xia Zhao, deputy director of COEMinerals and a researcher at the University of Adelaide’s School of Chemical Engineering, said current mineral separation methods can be costly, inefficient, and environmentally damaging.
“Current mineral separation processes can require hundreds of stages; this is not only inefficient and costly but involves toxic solvents that harm the environment,” Zhao said.
The new approach uses peptides – tiny chains of amino acids – to selectively bind to specific minerals, much like a lock-and-key mechanism.
“There are 20 naturally existing amino acids which are genetically encoded and are used to build proteins, so imagine randomly combining seven of them, you’d create a library of billions of unique peptides,” Zhao said.
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“By identifying specific peptide sequences that selectively bind to a particular mineral, we’re essentially uncovering a unique code for that material and have been able to find precise peptide matches for specific minerals, each one fitting like a jigsaw puzzle.”
Published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, the team’s latest research achieved over 98 per cent silver purity and more than 95 per cent recovery when separating silver from silica, a common mining byproduct.
“We think we can push those numbers even higher. More tests are currently underway, with a particular focus on rare earth elements which are critical materials used in everything from electric vehicles and wind turbines,” Zhao said.
“At present, producing high-purity rare earths can require up to 100 per cent solvent extraction steps, demanding significant capital investment and consuming large quantities of toxic solvents and chemicals.”