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A fungus that dissolves gold...

lkeneficlkenefic Posts: 9,558 ✭✭✭✭✭
Collecting: Dansco 7070; Middle Date Large Cents (VF-AU); Box of 20;

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    HemisphericalHemispherical Posts: 9,370 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Now that is going to be interesting.
    Cream of Golden Mushroom (Fungi) soup/chowder.

    —————

    “Fungi present in soil of the so-called Golden Triangle Gold Prospect zone of Australia can oxidize the metal, researchers reported May 23 in Nature Communications. The reaction dissolves gold, after which the fungi precipitate the metal on their surfaces, a process that may help move the metal from deeper deposits in the Earth’s crust closer to the surface.“

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    StuartStuart Posts: 9,831 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited June 1, 2019 8:09AM

    Courtesy Interesting Scientific Journal Article Post👇for @LKenefic


    Stuart

    Collect 18th & 19th Century US Type Coins, Silver Dollars, $20 Gold Double Eagles and World Crowns & Talers with High Eye Appeal

    "Luck is what happens when Preparation meets Opportunity"
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    RogerBRogerB Posts: 8,881 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Does that mean "Gold Bugs" are really fungi in disguise?

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    johnny9434johnny9434 Posts: 34,610 ✭✭✭✭✭

    sounds like Chinese collusion to me

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    topstuftopstuf Posts: 14,803 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @RogerB said:
    Does that mean "Gold Bugs" are really fungi in disguise?

    Goldbugz are fun guys. :p

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    kbbpllkbbpll Posts: 542 ✭✭✭✭

    "gold decoration seems to benefit the fungus" (https://www.livescience.com/65562-gold-studded-fungus-australia.html)
    :smile:

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    AUandAGAUandAG Posts: 25,053 ✭✭✭✭✭

    There is a "weed" that grows in our desert only when gold is in the ground......microscopic but it has to have gold to flourish....great for us prospectors and metal detectorists.

    bob :)

    Registry: CC lowballs (boblindstrom), bobinvegas1989@yahoo.com
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    CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 34,258 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @AUandAG said:
    There is a "weed" that grows in our desert only when gold is in the ground......microscopic but it has to have gold to flourish....great for us prospectors and metal detectorists.

    bob :)

    Goldenrod?

    😎

    Professional Numismatist, Retired. 55 year member ANA. Former ANA Senior Authenticator. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and ANA Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner of the PNG's 2026 Robert Friedberg Award for "The Enigmatic Lincoln Cents of 1922," Available now from Whitman or Amazon.
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    StuartStuart Posts: 9,831 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Gold Decoration seems to Benefit the Fungus

    Web Link to Article: 👉 (https://www.livescience.com/65562-gold-studded-fungus-australia.html)



    Stuart

    Collect 18th & 19th Century US Type Coins, Silver Dollars, $20 Gold Double Eagles and World Crowns & Talers with High Eye Appeal

    "Luck is what happens when Preparation meets Opportunity"
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    rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Now that is interesting.... I am surprised since gold is such an inert element...Another tool for gold seekers... Cheers, RickO

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    topstuftopstuf Posts: 14,803 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Gold from mold. Hmmm.....

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    AUandAGAUandAG Posts: 25,053 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @CaptHenway said:

    @AUandAG said:
    There is a "weed" that grows in our desert only when gold is in the ground......microscopic but it has to have gold to flourish....great for us prospectors and metal detectorists.

    bob :)

    Goldenrod?

    😎

    No, not goldenrod.....that does not grow here in the desert....lol

    Registry: CC lowballs (boblindstrom), bobinvegas1989@yahoo.com
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    RogerBRogerB Posts: 8,881 ✭✭✭✭✭

    This is possibly the key phrase in the article for gold mining companies:

    “In fact, a previous study, which did not distinguish between dissolved and colloidal gold, showed that prokaryotic microorganisms could oxidatively dissolve 45.7% (in weight) of gold in soil microcosms after 45 days of incubation.”

    [Tsing Bohu, Ravi Anand, Ryan Noble, et al, “Evidence for fungi and gold redox interaction under Earth surface conditions,” Nature Communications 10, Article number: 2290 (2019).]

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    Namvet69Namvet69 Posts: 9,430 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Just when you think it's safe to go outside. Might be related to the blob of cinema fame. There's a fungus among us.

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    RogerBRogerB Posts: 8,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited June 1, 2019 1:22PM

    Consider the future ––

    Gold ore processing and concentrating might look and operate much like a community waste water treatment plant. No cyanide or other harmful chemicals – just a constant, methodical process from extraction to concentration to cast bars. Not fast. Not exciting. Minimal environment damage.

    Further, low grade ore – even old tailings – could yield substantial amounts of gold by recovery of mico- and nano-particles presently lost, or recovered only by expensive chemical processes.

    These little “gold bugs” would ask for little and give a lot – all very cheaply.

    Also, after rereading the article and some of the cited references, it might be feasible to nourish, in part, Fusarium oxysporum with coal mine waste now held in sequestration ponds.

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    AUandAGAUandAG Posts: 25,053 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @RogerB Killing a fungus is way too easy....trying to keep them alive to do a job would be a job in itself. I'm quite sure that this fungus does not just live anywhere and everywhere. Only certain conditions will support fungal life. Probably not a tailing pile.

    bob :)

    Registry: CC lowballs (boblindstrom), bobinvegas1989@yahoo.com
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    RogerBRogerB Posts: 8,881 ✭✭✭✭✭

    True. The concentrating plant would need to keep the little buggers alive and hopping. However, Fusarium oxysporum is widely found, and not especially sensitive to local conditions. The formae specialis that best suits commercial use would have to be determined, tested to prove it does not produce toxins, and possibly have some genetic elements altered for the specific task. But -- think of what could be done, not how it might not be done.

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    ColonelJessupColonelJessup Posts: 6,442 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited June 1, 2019 2:26PM

    Coin doctors have been using this for about 15 years to simulate original "crust". Remarkable that the Sniffer hasn't picked it up :#
    Australifungi numismedicalis reawakens sensory receptors more like French white truffles than Italian black ones. Odor-(but not color)-wise :*

    Remarkable that the US Department of Agriculture hasn't yet put a tariff on this to stop it :o

    "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." - Geo. Orwell
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    topstuftopstuf Posts: 14,803 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Sniff the tariff.

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