MYCOMETALLURGY: FILAMENTOUS FUNGI FOR RECOVERING PRECIOUS METALS AND RARE-EARTH ELEMENTS FROM WASTE MATERIALS

ABSTRACT: Due to the wide range of applications in high-tech solutions Rare Earth Elements (REEs) have become an object of great interest. The potential risk for REEs stock, environment, and economic benefits stimulate the research on processing of secondary materials in the EU. Although significant studies on REEs extraction from secondary resources have been carried out and a variety of technologies have been proposed. Recently, traditional technologies are being replaced by biotechnologies, which use tolerant and accumulator microorganisms to recover and recycle precious metals. The aim of this work was to test a new method to recover REEs from WEEEs (waste electrical and electronic equipments) using fungi. Our results are the subject of the Italian patent application n.102015000041404 submitted by the University of Genoa and demonstrate that the strain tested is able to bioconcentrate some REEs, in particular La and Tb, up to about 200 and 3000 times respectively. The process described may be considered a new technique of recycling, by mycorecovery, of precious metals.