Valorisation de métaux extraits de sols à l’aide de plantes

In view of the increasing use of metals, it is essential to develop the recycling and exploitation of secondary resources, such as soil and mine tailings. More than 3% of the world's soil contains nickel, in concentrations too low for the metal to be mined using conventional mining techniques. There are specific plants, known as hyperaccumulators, which have the ability to extract certain metals from the soil and accumulate them in their aerial parts. We have taken advantage of these properties to develop the agromining chain. This involves growing hyperaccumulator plants and developing  hydrometallurgical processes to recover and recycle these metals from plant biomass. This approach has been applied to various metals at research level. ECONICK was founded to implement agromine and now employs around ten people in Lunéville. This seminar will focus on presenting the agromining process.