Metal mining faces a number of significant economic and environmental challenges in the twenty-first century for which established and emerging biotechnologies may, at least in part, provide the answers. Bioprocessing of mineral ores and concentrates is already used in variously engineered formats to extract base (e.g., copper, cobalt, and nickel) and precious (gold and silver) metals in mines throughout the world, though it remains a niche technology. However, current projections of an increasing future need to use low-grade primary metal ores, to reprocess mine wastes, and to develop in situ leaching technologies to extract metals from deep-buried ore bodies, all of which are economically more amenable to bioprocessing than conventional approaches (e.g., pyrometallurgy), would suggest that biomining will become more extensively utilized in the future. Recent research has also shown that bioleaching could be used to process a far wider range of metal ores (e.g., oxidized ores) than has previously been the case. Biotechnologies are also being developed to control mine-related pollution, including securing mine wastes (rocks and tailings) by using "ecological engineering" approaches, and also to remediate and recover metals from waste waters, such as acid mine drainage. This article reviews the current status of biotechnologies within the mining sector and considers how these may be developed and applied in future years.
A convenient method for the enzymic conversion of multimilligram quantities of 3-hydroxybenzo[a]pyrene to 3-benzo[a]pyrenyl-beta-D-glucopyranosiduronic acid in 90% yield is described. Commercially available freeze-dried rabbit liver microsomes were incubated in the presence of UDPGA, 3-hydroxybenzo[a]pyrene, and Triton X-100 detergent (Figure 1). The course of the biosynthetic reaction was followed by fluorimetry. The glucuronide product was extracted from the acidified incubation supernate with ethyl acetate and the acid function of the glucuronide was utilized in an acid-base extraction procedure to purify the glucuronide from biological and unreacted starting material. The glucuronide precipitated from ethyl acetate and was collected by centrifugation. High pressure liquid chromatography and spectroscopic techniques were used to verify the structure and purity of 3-benzo[a]pyrenyl-beta-D-glucopyranosiduronic acid.
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