Mining giant Vale has teamed up with the University of São Paulo to identify copper eating bacteria that can help mine mineral waste.

Worldcrunch reports the bacteria and fungi could lead to higher copper recovery from tailing dams and could ultimately bring in an extra USD 1.4 billion for the company. The project is currently being tested in northern Brazil but is still far away from being economically viable.

Nevertheless Mr Eugenio Victorasso copper director of Vale said that if the technology could be proven it would be a game changer for the industry. This would be a revolutionary technology for the mining world. We would have a much higher copper recovery rate than today.

Source - Mineweb.com

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