'Gold Bug' Sheds Light on How Some Gold Deposits Formed http://www.spacedaily.com/news/early-earth-01j.

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T E R R A D A I LY

'Gold Bug' Sheds Light on How Some Gold Deposits Formed

Amherst - Sept. 10, 2001
For centuries, scientists have wondered why gold is found in two forms -- as a solid
in deposits close to the Earth's crust, and in solution, often far removed from gold-
ore deposits.

A fairly simple lab experiment conducted at the University of Massachusetts may

lead to an understanding of how the precious metal came to be available in
disparate forms, and how some gold-ore deposits might have been formed.

In research related to pollution clean-up, a team of UMass microbiologists led by

noted researcher Derek Lovley has extracted gold solids from water containing
dissolved gold.
A family touches the world's
The work uses technology Lovley developed 10 years ago to clean up heavily largest gold ingot displayed at a
museum at the Toi Gold Mine, in
polluted water and soil around the U.S. using bacteria and archaea, or ancient
the town of Toi, Shizuoka
micro-organisms, to break down heavy metals in affected environments. prefecture, 30 July 2000. The
200-kilogram gold ingot,
Like uranium, cadmium, and other heavy metals, gold is precious and useful to measuring 40.5cm x 19.5cm x
humans. Lovley notes that dissolved gold, however, is useless because it can't be 16cm, was recognized 28 July as
manipulated and formed into objects of value or beauty. the world's largest gold ingot by
the Guinness World Record. AFP
Lovley says when either solid or liquid gold is ingested, it is toxic to most life forms.
PHOTO
On the other hand, liquid gold and many other heavy metals are not toxic to a group
of microbes called extremophiles, or simple life forms known to thrive in environments where others cannot live.

With this in mind, the UMass researchers asked if extremophiles might have ingested the liquid gold found in
hydrothermal vents, hot springs, and other hot places, and left it scattered as deposits of solid gold in places that
now are below the surface of the Earth.

This would explain how the metal came to be in two different forms in very different environments. If that is the
case, the team wondered if microbes could duplicate the process in the laboratory and extract valuable solids
from liquid containing dissolved gold.

"A vast number of bacteria and archaea have the ability to transfer electrons to iron through a reduction process,"
explained Lovley. "In other words, they digest one form of a metal and excrete it as another form. This transfer
leaves behind deposits of solid metal in unlikely places on Earth or maybe even on Mars. What's left behind is

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'Gold Bug' Sheds Light on How Some Gold Deposits Formed http://www.spacedaily.com/news/early-earth-01j.html

often more useful, or more accessible to humans, than the original form of the same substance."

Lovley's lab has previously published evidence that iron-reducing micro-organisms are involved in the formation
of uranium ores, changing uranium to a form that precipitates out of water.

Massive accumulations of magnetite created by iron-reducing microbes during the Precambrian period of the
earth's development now are important deposits of iron ore, according to Lovley.

In the laboratory, postdoctoral research associate Kazem Kashefi, and graduate students Jason M. Tor, and Kelly
P. Nevin studied dissolved gold in an oxidized form in an environment similar to that found in a hydrothermal vent,
where dissolved gold can sometimes be found.

The team wanted to see what would happen if they put iron-reducing microbes into the gold solution under those
conditions. As they suspected, the microbes rapidly converted the gold from the useless, oxidized, dissolved
form to a more valuable, insoluble, metal form. Essentially, the microbes had eaten the solution, and left behind a
precious by-product.

"There's a significant amount of gold found in solution in some thermal springs, and hydrothermal vents on the
ocean floor," Lovley said. "The problem is that the gold is extremely diluted, so only a teeny amount is dispersed
in a very large volume of water."

"There are waste streams from gold processing where this same reduction process might work on a larger scale,
but the goal of this study was to offer an explanation of how gold deposits are formed, more than it was to
produce any profitable or useful application on a larger scale," explained Lovley.

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T E R R A D A I LY
New Electron Microprobe Can Determine the Ages of Rocks
Amherst - August 8, 2001
The new method offers greater efficiency, and access to a much more detailed geologic record than
current dating methods, the scientists say. The successes of the early phases of the research have led
to funding for development of a new electron microprobe that will significantly enhance the potential
of the technique.

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