Indonesian Journal on Geoscience Vol. 1 No.

1 April 2014: 1-7

INDONESIAN JOURNAL ON GEOSCIENCE

Geological Agency
Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources
Journal homepage: h�p://ijog.bgl.esdm.go.id
ISSN 2355-9314 (Print), e-ISSN 2355-9306 (Online)

Gold Phytomining: A New Idea

for Environmental Sustainability in Indonesia
Baiq Dewi Krisnayanti1 and Christopher Anderson2
1
University of Mataram, Indonesia; International Research Centre for Management
of Degraded and Mining Lands (IRC-MEDMIND)
2
Massey University, New Zealand; International Research Centre for Management
of Degraded and Mining Lands (IRC-MEDMIND)

G Corresponding author: [email protected]

Manuscript received: December 3, 2012, revised: December 13, 2013, approved: March 20, 2014

Abstract - New technology is needed to protect the safety and health of communities and the environment at ASGM
locations in Indonesia. This technology must be simple, cheap, easy to operate, and financially rewarding. A proven
option that should be promoted is phytoextraction, a farming activity that could develop agriculture as an alternative
livelihood in ASGM areas. This is a technology where plants are used to extract metals from waste rock, soil, or
water. These metals can be recovered from the plant in its pure form, then be sold or recycled. Gold phytoextrac-
tion is a commercially available technology, while a n international research has shown that phytoextraction will
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also work for mercury. In the context of this idea, tailings would be contained in ‘farming areas’ and cropped
using phytoextraction technology. Gold and mercury would be extracted in the crops, with the remaining mercury
burden of the tailings becoming adsorbed to soil constituents. The system would be financially rewarding to ‘gold
farmers’. The economic value of this scenario could facilitate the clean-up and management of mercury pollution,
reducing the movement of mercury from tailings into soil, water, and plants, thereby mitigating environmental
and human risk in the mining areas. The goal of the described research is to promote agriculture as an alterna-
tive livelihood in ASGM areas. The gold value of the phytoremediation crop should provide a cash incentive
to artisanal farmers who develop this new agricultural enterprise. The benefits will be social, environmental, and
economic, as opportunities for education, employment, new business, the containment of toxic mercury, food
safety and security, and revenue are all realized.
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Keywords: gold, phytomining, tailing, new business, phytoremediation, agriculture

Introduction Carbon In Pulp (CIP), Carbon In Leach (CIL),

or heap leach circuit to extract gold from the
Gold is a precious metal on earth that millions rock in the majority of these operations. Plans
of people depend their life on this metal. Despite are generally in place to contain contaminated
of the prosperity target, beneath it many issues are waste, and to rehabilitate the mining area once
related to gold mining, such as an environmental an operation finishes.
issue. However, science is always developing Past mining operations, however, environ-
to cope with the issues, in order to minimize mental risk in the form of chemicals, heavy met-
the environmental impact and targeting people als, and sediment discharged from waste areas
prosperity. and interact with ecosystems is present. Runoff
Modern gold mining operations conducted in and leakage from tailings and waste rock can
Indonesia by multinational mining companies, pollute streams flowing out of the mining area,
like in most countries, are regulated and efficient. causing widespread damage downstream. This
Mined ore is leached with cyanide through a has a direct affect on communities and people

IJOG/JGI (Jurnal Geologi Indonesia) - Acredited by LIPI No. 547/AU2/P2MI-LIPI/06/2013, valid 21 June 2013 - 21 June 2016
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 Indonesian Journal on Geoscience, Vol. 1 No. 1 April 2014: 1-7

who depend directly on goods and services to produce a commercial ‘bio-ore’ (Brooks et
provided by ecosystems, and the quality of, and al., 1998).
their access to, natural resources. An increase Phytomining offers several advantages over
in wealth generated by commodities can be conventional mining (Brooks et al., 1998), which
offseted by a decrease in wealth attributed to include (a) the possibility of exploiting ore bod-
natural capital destroyed through the commod- ies or mineralized soils otherwise uneconomic to
ity production cycle (specifically the average develop, (b) its environmental impact is minimal
person’s ecosystem). The result is a population when compared with the erosion caused by open-
that is poorer, despite an apparent increase in cut mining, (c) the operation would be visibly
gross domestic product. Any rise in GDP in this indistinguishable from a commercial farming op-
context is at the expense of an average person’s eration, (d) a ‘bio-ore’ has a higher metal content
natural asset. than a conventional ore and thus needs less space
Contamination at a historic mining site is not for storage, and (e) because of its low sulphur
necessarily bad. It is the scenario of this con- content, smelting a ‘bio-ore’ does not contribute
tamination interacting with soil, plants, animals, significantly to acid rain.

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and people that must be mitigated or managed.
Professional assessment is therefore essential
to diagnose environmental risk, and to define
a remediation plan. Some of the worst mining
pollution around the world that is seen today, is
due to historic operations where no environmen-
tal risk assessment or rehabilitation procedures
were put in place upon the conclusion of mining
Phytomining is actually a subset of a larger
field of research known as phytoextraction, the
process of using plants to beneficially absorb
mineral species from soils, sediments, and
groundwater. It involves the cultivation of tolerant
plans that concentrate soil contaminants in their
above-ground tissues. At the end of the growth
period, plant biomass is harvested, dried or in-
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operations. cinerated, and the contaminant-enriched material
The category of mining that causes the greatest is deposited in a special dump or added into a
level of environment damage in Indonesia is ‘ar- smelter. The distinction between phytoextraction
tisanal mining’. This term describes an informal and phytomining is that in phytomining, the metal
and unregulated system of small-scale mining accumulated by plants is sufficiently valuable to
prevalent in many of the world’s poorest countries economically justify the recovery of this metal in
and communities. Artisanal miners do not make pure form. To date, phytomining has been trialled,
large profits; they strive to make sufficient money to varying degrees of success, for nickel and gold.
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to support their immediate family. Many metals The more common application of phytoextrac-
and minerals are mined using artisanal methods, tion is phytoremediation, where non-naturally
but high value commodities such as precious occurring contaminants are recovered for disposal
metals and gemstones provide the greatest return. or reuse. Phytostabilisation is used to describe a
In the context of gold mining, the term artisanal land-management technique where contaminant
and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is used to species are immobilized in situ via plant action.
describe this practice. In contrast to phytoremediation, the objective in
phytomining is to recover a mineral (metallic)
What Is Phytomining? commodity for commercial gain. Consequently,
Phytomining is the production of a ‘crop’ of a phytomining almost always refers to the recovery
metal by growing high-biomass plants that accu- of heavy metals.
mulate high metal concentrations (Brooks et al., Phytoremediation and phytomining are being
1998). A phytomining operation would therefore developed as commercially viable environmental
entail planting a crop over a low-grade ore body or technologies by many groups around the world.
mineralized soil, implementing appropriate land Massey University has an international reputation
management techniques to ensure metal uptake, for conducting novel and important phytoreme-
and then harvesting and incinerating the biomass diation research at historic and active mine sites

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 Gold Phytomining: A New Idea for Environmental Sustainability in Indonesia (B.D. Krisnayanti and C. Anderson)

in New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, China, USA, metals to above ground tissues. After sufficient
Mexico, Brazil, and South Africa. Massey Uni- growth, plant is harvested and left for drying.
versity scientists have many years of experience Dried plant material is reduced to an ash with or
in the design and application of phytoremedia- without energy recovery, which is further treated
tion projects. A New Zealand company that has by roasting, sintering, or smelting methods, which
a research relationship with Massey University allow the metals in an ash or ore to be recovered
has proprietary expertise in the processing of according to conventional metal refining meth-
plant biomass to recover metals, including gold. ods such as acid dissolution and electrowinning
Research in New Zealand has investigated a (Figure 1) (Robinson et al., 1999).
system where gold and mercury are recovered by Plants have shown several response patterns
the same crop of plants from soil or tailings at an to the presence of high metal concentration in
ASGM location elevated in both of these metals the soils. Most are sensitive to high metal con-
(Moreno et al., 2005). centrations and others have developed resistance,
tolerance, and accumulate them in roots and
How Does Phytomining Work? above ground tissues, such as shoot, flower, stem,

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Phytomining works through phytoextraction,
thus hyperaccumulator plants. Many extensively
studies on hyperaccumulators have been done
by researchers including using Thlaspi sp. to hy-
peraccumulate Cd, Ni, Pb, and Zn. For example,
Thalspi caerulescens could remove as high as
60 kg Zn/ha and 8.4 kg Cd/ha (Robinson et al.,
1998), due to specific rooting strategy and a high
and leaves. The current definition of a hyperac-
cumulator is a plant that is able to accumulate
metal to a concentration that is 100 times greater
than “normal” plants growing in the same envi-
ronment. Sheoran et al. (2009) stated that metal
hyperaccumulation was a complex and rare phe-
nomenon that occurs in plant species with high
metal uptake capacity. The mechanism of metal
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uptake rate resulting from the existence in this hyperaccumulation involves several steps (Figure
population of Cd-specific transport channels or 2), which are:
carriers in the root membrane (Schwartz et al., 1. solubilization of metal from the soil matrix,
2003). 2. root absorption and transport to shoot, and
Hyperaccumulators efficiently extract metals 3. distribution, detoxification, and sequestrian
from the metalliferous soils and then translocate of metal ion.
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Potential of phytomining of areas Bioxtraction/phytoextraction of
unable to be exploited by conventional metal for commercial gain:
methods: Metaliferous soils Cropping
Low grade ore Harvesting
Mill tailings Drying
Ashign

Reclaimed soil product Small volume of bio-ore

Smelt metal

Figure 1. Integrated process for bioharvesting of metals by phytomining.

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 Indonesian Journal on Geoscience, Vol. 1 No. 1 April 2014: 1-7

Distribution, Detoxification
and Sequestration
(Cell wall binding,
vacuole sequestration,
cytoplasmic chelation)

Xylem transport
• Symplast loading

Bio-activation of
the metals in
the rhizosphere
• H+ secretion
• Organic acids
• Enzymes
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• Ion exchange etc.

M 2+

. Root microbe interaction

M 2+ M 2+

available
M 2+
Root absorption and compartmentation
• Transporters
• Channels or membrane pump
• Cytoplasmic chelators

potentially
available
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Total metal fraction
in soil solution
unavailable

Figure 2. General mechanism of metal hyperaccumulation by plants.

Method Gold Hytomining by considering a soil profile of 20 cm depth to

achieve 100 mg/kg of plant dry mass. Many re-
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Theory and Practice searches have shown that uptake of gold can be
A review of pyhtomining (Sheoran et al., induced using lixiviants such as sodium cyanide,
2009) has stated that gold has been suggested as thiocyanate, thiosulphates. In an induced hyperac-
a potential candidate for phytomining. Tailing cumulation operation of gold, the geochemistry of
areas usually contains residual gold in very low the substrate (pH, Eh, and chemical form of gold)
concentrations, whereas the relatively high con- will play a rule of the solubilizing agent necessary
centrations found in heap leach pads and waste to affect the uptake of the precious metal. For
dumps. Plants normally do not accumulate gold; low-pH sulfide tailings, gold is made soluble by
the metal must be made soluble before uptake can thiocyanate, and for high-pH unoxidised sulfide
occur. The residual gold could be extracted using tailings gold is soluble with thiosulphate (Ander-
induced hyperaccumulation if the substrates were son et al., 1999).
amenable to plant growth. The concentration of
gold that can be induced into a plant is dependant
upon the gold concentration in the soil on which Result and Discussions
the plant is growing.
Anderson et al. (2005) has showed that ap- In the last decade, there have been many re-
proximately 2 mg of gold per kg of soil is needed ports of gold accumulation by plants, in particular

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 Gold Phytomining: A New Idea for Environmental Sustainability in Indonesia (B.D. Krisnayanti and C. Anderson)

trees. Work conducted over 30 years in Canada 7,550. Lamb et al. (2001) induced plant species
showed that common conifers could accumulate B. juncea, B. coddii, and Chicory with thiocyanate
up to 0.02 mg/kg gold over gold mineralization. and cyanide solutions to determine gold concen-
In addition, Dunn (1995) reported a background tration in different parts of plants. The ashed plant
level of gold in plants of 0.0002 mg/kg dry material was dissolved in 2 M HCl, followed by
weight, although this author stated that values up solvent extraction of the gold into solvent methyl
to 0.1 mg/kg could be found. isobutyl ketone (MIBK). Addition of the reduc-
Hyperaccumulation of gold was defined in ing agent sodium borohydride to the organic
1998 as accumulation greater than 1 mg/kg, this layer caused a formation of black precipitate at
limit being based upon a normal gold concentra- the boundary between the two layers and heat-
tion in plants of only 0.01 mg/kg (Anderson et al., ing this precipitate to 800oC caused formation of
1998a,b). Anderson et al. (1998b) induced Indian metallic gold. Gold concentrations ranged from
mustard (B. juncea) with ammonium thiocyanate negligible in the leaves of B. coddii induced with
at the rate of 0, 80, 160, 320, and 640 mg/kg dry thiocyanate, to 326 mg/kg Au dried biomass in
substrate weight in pots containing an artificial the leaves of B. juncea induced with cyanide. The

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5 mg/kg finely disseminated gold rich material,
analogous to a natural, oxidized, nonsulfidic ores.
Hyper-accumulation of Au was achieved above
a thiocyanate treatment level of 160 mg/kg and
yielded up to 57 mg/kg Au.
A similar experiment with B. juncea grown in
a medium containing 5 mg/kg Au prepared from
finely powdered native Au (44 lm) and treated
chemical additives KI, KBr, NaS2O3, and NaSCN
were also used with the B. juncea and Chicory.
The results showed varying degrees of hyper-
accumulation with all chemical treatments. Cya-
nide again gave the best results with 164 mg/kg
Au dried biomass measured in the Chicory plant.
NaS2O3, KI, and NaSCN gave maximum results
of 51, 41, and 31 mg/kg Au dried biomass, re-
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with ammonium thiocyanate at an application spectively. Gardea-Torresdey et al. (2005) have
rate of 250 mg/kg also supported the results (An- reported that C. linearis (desert willow - a com-
derson et al., 1999b). Anderson et al. (2005) also mon inhabitant of Mexican Chihuahuan Desert)
estimated that a harvested crop of 10,000 kg/ha is a potential plant for gold phytomining. Desert
biomass (dry) with gold concentration of 100 mg/ willow seedlings grew very well in the presence
kg, which would yield 1 kg of gold/hectare could of NH4SCN concentration lower than 1x10-4
be economically viable. They experimented with mol/ L. It has been reported that shoot elongation
B. juncea (Indian mustard) and Z. mays (corn) was also not affected by either the Au or NH4SCN
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induced with sodium cyanide and thiocyanate concentrations. In addition when using NH4SCN
grown on oxidized ore pile containing 0.6 mg/ at a concentration of 10-4 mol/L with 5 mg Au/L,
kg gold. They reported that B. juncea showed the Au uptake was enhanced by approximately 595,
best ability to concentrate gold giving an average 396, and 467 percentages in roots, stems, and
of 39 mg/kg after sodium cyanide treatment. The leaves, respectively, compared with gold uptake
highest individual gold concentration determined by plants grown in only 5 mg Au/L. Their stud-
through an analysis of selected biomass was 63 ies also showed that this plant produced Au (0)
g/kg (NaCN treatment of B. juncea) (Anderson nanoparticles with an approximate radius of 0.55
et al., 2005). nm. Mohan (2005) recommended phytomining
Gold phytomining has also been reported by to be a novel cost-effective technology to extract
Msuya et al. (2000) with five root crops (carrot, gold from larger residual dumps (mounds of tail-
red beet, onion, and two cultivars of radish) grown ings) and from low-grade ores at KGF (Kolar
in artificial substrate consisting of 3.8 mg/kg gold, Gold Fields) in Karnataka. Continuous conven-
and concluded that carrot roots yielded 0.779 tional mining has depleted the level of gold up
Au kg/ha, worth US$ 840; by adding chelaters to 3 mg/kg, hence union government closed the
ammonium thiocyanate and thiosulphate carrot mine. Committees worked over closed mine,
roots yielded 1.45 Au kg/ha of final worth US$ proposed a scheme to recover gold from larger

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 Indonesian Journal on Geoscience, Vol. 1 No. 1 April 2014: 1-7

residual dumps (mounds of tailings) that had ac-

cumulated over the years. Studies have shown
that there are about 33 million tonnes of dumps
accumulated over the years with a concentration
of gold 0.7 - 0.8 mg/kg, which may be a source
of 24,000 kg of gold.

Economic Viability of Gold Phytomining

The general target for a gold phytomining
operation is to yield 0.5 kg of gold from ever
hectare (unit area) of operation. This gold yield is
possible through harvesting 5 t/ha of dry biomass
containing an average gold concentration of 100 Figure 3. Four spesies growth at cyanidation tailings from
mg/kg (this unit is the same as g/t). At a gold price ASGM Sekotong, West Lombok, Indonesia.
of US$ 1,500 an ounce, 0.5 kg of gold is worth

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US$ 24,113. The modelled costs to grow, tend,
treat, and process 5 tonnes of plant material are
approximately US$15,000. This generates a gross
profit of just over US$ 9,000 per hectare. Increased
biomass per hectare will lead to an increased yield
of gold and increased gross profit. An average gold
concentration in the biomass above or below 100
mg/kg will also change the expected gross profit.
0.58 - 6.58 ppm. The source of material used in
cyanidation process is from amalgamation tail-
ings, and the Au concentration of amalgamation
tailings is between 1.75 - 14.71 ppm.
After three months of growing, it showed that
corn and cassava survived in the extreme growth
medium. A week before harvesting, the plants was
treated by CN and fresh/dry biomass collected
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The limiting factor for the gold concentration for further laboratory analysis. The samples were
in plants is the total gold concentration in the soil analyzed in an analytical laboratory of Mataram
(tailings or waste rock), and the fraction of this total University, and the results are showed in Table 1.
gold that can be made available for plant uptake. The results indicate that there was a high prospect
There must be a gold concentration in the soil of 0.5 of using these local plants for gold phytomining.
g/t or greater for a pre-feasibility study to be war-
ranted. The cash value of the crop is not the only Table 1. Au Concentration on Plant Samples
positive economic parameter. The gold phytomin-
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Time of
ing process will also remove certain contaminants harvesting
Sample type Au (ppm)
from the soil (e.g. copper, arsenic, mercury) or 1 Dry corn leaves 3.40
will degrade contaminants within the plant root 1 Dry brassica 1.94
zone (cyanide). Several years of successive ‘gold 1 Dry cassava leaves 1.96
cropping’ will reduce contaminant levels, reduc- 2 Fresh cassava leaves 2.17
ing environmental risk and remediating the site. 2 Dry cassava leaves 1.49
3 Fresh cassava leaves 1.80
The gold value of the gold crop will subsidize or
3 Fresh cassava leaves 1.41
outright pay for complete site remediation.

The Projects Anderson’s current study has showed that

An early research of gold phytomining in gold phytomining is being actively developed
Sekotong of West Lombok District was con- in Mexico, a country with a long history of gold
ducted in 2011. A plot of four different species mining and a legacy of contaminated mining sites.
which were cassava, corn (Zea mays), Brassica Many historic mining locations have tailings with
juncea, and Sunflower directly planted on cya- a gold grade in excess of 1 g/t. Gold phytomining
nidation tailing (Figure 3). The Au concentration field trials have been conducted in Mexico for a
on the cyanidation tailings was in the range of number of years. These trials have involved col-

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 Gold Phytomining: A New Idea for Environmental Sustainability in Indonesia (B.D. Krisnayanti and C. Anderson)

laboration between the Universidad Autonoma Anderson, C.W.N., Brooks, R.R., Stewart, R.B.,
de Sinaloa (Mexico) and the New Zealand bio- and Simcock, R., 1998a. Harvesting a crop of
mass processing company, Tiaki International gold in plants. Nature, 395, p.553-554.
Ltd. (with Anderson). Anderson, C.W.N., Brooks, R.R., Stewart, R.B.,
In early 2012 a trial was conducted at a mine and Simcock, R., 1998b. Gold uptake by
site with surface tailings of approximately 3 plants. Gold Bulletin, 32 (2), p.48-51.
ha at an average gold grade in excess of 1 g/t. Brooks, R.R., Chambers, M.F., and Nicks, L.J.,
Sunflowers were grown on this mine waste and 1998. Phytomining. Trends in Plant Science,
treated to induce gold uptake. The average gold 3, p.359-362.
Dunn, C.E., 1995. Biogeochemical prospecting
concentration in the plant material at harvest
for metals, In: Brook, R.R., Dunn, C.E., and
was greater than 20 g/t with the maximum gold
Hall, G.E.M. (Eds.), Biological systems in
concentration in excess of 30 g/t. This biomass is
mineral exploration and processing, Ellis
currently being processed. However, taking the
Horword, Hemel Hemtead, p.371-426.
international market value of gold in 2012 into Gardea-Torresdey, J.L., Peralta-Videa, J.R., de
account, the observed gold concentration in the La Rosa, G., and Parsons, J.G., 2005. Phy-
plants is considered to be economic. This aver-

the field- harvested plants.

Conclusion
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age gold concentration was not considered to be
optimal. Future trials will seek to considerably
increase the gold concentration accumulated by
toremediation of heavy metals and study of
the metal coordination by X-ray absorption
spectroscopy. Coordination Chemistry Re-
views, 249, p.1797-1810.
Lamb, A.E., Anderson, C.W.N., and Haverkamp,
R.G., 2001. The extraction of gold from plants
and its applications to phytomining. Chemistry
in New Zealand, 3, p.1-33.
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Mohan, B.S., 2005. Phytomining of gold. Current
Gold phyotmining is a promising technology Science, 88 (7), p.1021-1022.
to be used on gold tailings in Indonesia. The Moreno, F.N., Anderson, C.W.N., Stewart, R.B.,
success and sustainability of gold phytomining Robinson, B.H., Ghomsei, M., and Meech,
will require a balance between the economic J.A., 2005. Induced plant uptake and transport
incentives to recover this precious metal and of mercury in the presence of sulfur-contain-
environmental sustainability in the field. ing ligads and humic acid. New Phytologist,
166 (2), p.445-454.
Msuya., F.A., Brooks, R.R., and Anderson,
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C.W.N., 2000. Chemiccally-induced uptake
Acknowledgment
of gold by root crop: its significance for phy-
tomining. Gold Bulletin, 33 (4), p.134-137.
The paper has been presented in MGEI meet-
Robinson B.H., Leblanc M., and Petit, D., 1998.
ing 2012, carried out in Malang, East Java. The potential of Thlaspi cearulescens for
phyto-remediation of contaminated soils.
Plant Soil, 203, p. 47-56.
References Robinson, B.H., Brooks, R.R., and Clothier, B.E.,
1999. Soil amendments affecting nickel and
Anderson, C., Moreno, F., and Meech, J., 2005. cobalt uptake by Berkheya coddii: potential
A field demonstration of gold phytoextrac- use for phytomining and phytoremediation.
tion technology. Minerals Engineering, 18, Annals of Botany, 84, p.689-694.
p.385-392. Schwartz, C., Echevarria, G., and Morel, J.I.,
Anderson, C.W.N., Brooks, R.R., Chiarucci, A., 2003. Phytoextraction of cadmium with
LaCoste, C.J., LeBlanc, M., Robinson, B.H., Thlaspi cearulescens. Plant Soil, 249, p.27-35.
Simcock, R., and Stewart, R.B., 1999. Phy- Sheoran, V., Sheoran, A.S., and Poonia, P., 2009.
tomining for nickel, thalium and gold. Journal Phytomining: A review. Minerals Engineer-
of Geochemical Exploration, 67, p.407-415. ing, 22, p.1007-1019.