How do I give these people my money?
https://www.mining.com/from-digging-to-electric-fields-new-technique-to-extract-metals-from-hard-rock-ore/
>In a paper published in the journal Science Advances, the researchers explain that the methodology consists of installing electrodes within a given ore body and applying electric currents that could induce the transport of electrically charged metals such as copper through rocks by a process called electromigration.
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/18/eabf9971
>Metals are currently almost exclusively extracted from their ore via physical excavation. This energy-intensive process dictates that metal mining remains among the foremost CO2 emitters and mine waste is the single largest waste form by mass. We propose a new approach, electrokinetic in situ leaching (EK-ISL), and demonstrate its applicability for a Cu-bearing sulfidic porphyry ore. In laboratory-scale experiments, Cu recovery was rapid (up to 57 weight % after 94 days) despite low ore hydraulic conductivity (permeability = 6.1 mD; porosity = 10.6%). Multiphysics numerical model simulations confirm the feasibility of EK-ISL at the field scale. This new approach to mining is therefore poised to spearhead a new paradigm of metal recovery from currently inaccessible ore bodies with a markedly reduced environmental footprint.
https://www.mining.com/from-digging-to-electric-fields-new-technique-to-extract-metals-from-hard-rock-ore/
>In a paper published in the journal Science Advances, the researchers explain that the methodology consists of installing electrodes within a given ore body and applying electric currents that could induce the transport of electrically charged metals such as copper through rocks by a process called electromigration.
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/18/eabf9971
>Metals are currently almost exclusively extracted from their ore via physical excavation. This energy-intensive process dictates that metal mining remains among the foremost CO2 emitters and mine waste is the single largest waste form by mass. We propose a new approach, electrokinetic in situ leaching (EK-ISL), and demonstrate its applicability for a Cu-bearing sulfidic porphyry ore. In laboratory-scale experiments, Cu recovery was rapid (up to 57 weight % after 94 days) despite low ore hydraulic conductivity (permeability = 6.1 mD; porosity = 10.6%). Multiphysics numerical model simulations confirm the feasibility of EK-ISL at the field scale. This new approach to mining is therefore poised to spearhead a new paradigm of metal recovery from currently inaccessible ore bodies with a markedly reduced environmental footprint.
