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Researchers could use microbes to clean mine sites - YouTube
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My interest in mining
environments actually started out
[8]
with an interest in extreme environments
[11]
and extreme bacteria, and what
pushes the limits of life
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And that started out with doing
research in the high Arctic
[17]
and other places where we find
[19]
bacteria than inhabit
environments where nothing else
[21]
seems to survive
[22]
But the interesting thing
is that Sudbury actually is
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an extreme environment
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Mining environments, with their low ph and
[28]
high metal content
[30]
actually is an environment that very
[32]
few things can inhabit
[33]
except for these microbes
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I'm Dr. Nadia Mykytczuk
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I'm the NOHFC Industrial Research Chair in
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Biomining, Bioremediation
and Science Communication
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Because Canada has been
mining for a very long time
[46]
we've been dealing with mine
waste for a very long time
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And we have many engineering and chemical
[51]
solutions to try and deal with
mine waste and clean them up
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And that's worked very well in many cases
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The challenge is that there
are still a lot of residual
[59]
issues to deal with, and
that is the low levels
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of metals and acids that leave these sites
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What we try to do in our
research program is
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develop alternative strategies
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In dealing with these long term legacy
[70]
challenges that the
mining industry is facing
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And one of the ways that we can do this is
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using biotechnologies that try to clean up
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these wastes. So extract
value from those wastes
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We call this biomining
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or in remediating those
sites and trying to
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trap those metals in those mine wastes
[87]
And prevent them from going
out into the environment
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A lot of people when
they look at mine waste
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don't realize that it's
a thriving ecosystem
[95]
and there is a variety of microbes
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that inhabit these
extreme environments
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and have evolved to eat iron and sulfur
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and these microbes
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drive the chemical reactions that
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create this environmental impact
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But if we can study these
microbes and harness
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their abilities to break
down these mine wastes
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We can actually make them work for us
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What has changed now in the
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ability to develop biotechnologies
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is that we have new tools
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Molecular tools allow us to study bacteria
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in the environment
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They allow us to look at their functions
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and understand what
they're capable of doing
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And allow us to then harness
some of those capabilities
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We're at the very early
stages of understanding
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how these microbes work and every single
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mining environment is different
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But what we hope to achieve
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Is being able to develop tools
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that allow us to extract value
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in the form of metal commodities
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and reduce liabilities
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What I mean by that is reducing the cost of
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cleaning up these legacy issues
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We want to combine both
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biomining and bioremidiation
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as strategies as part of
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long-term treatment for mine waste
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So as we continue this research
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one really important aspect not to overlook
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is the fact that we have to
communicate what we're doing
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These are new technologies
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new ways of doing things
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and in order to have
support and understanding
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from our various partners, from industry
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from various stakeholders
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We have to get really good at communicating
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what we're doing and what
we're trying to achieve
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We really have to do this
through collaboration
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Both with industry, other academics
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and have support of
government funding agencies
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and the private sector to
make this all possible
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I've been fortunate in getting support
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as an early career researcher
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from the Ministry of
Research and Innovation
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and in achieving infrastructure support
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from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation
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With this type of funding
you're able to really
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get the lab off the ground
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and get the activities and
the students working on
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all these exciting projects
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I think we are well situated in Sudbury
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in that we have a long history of mining
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We have an excellent model of
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reclamation and remediation
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and now I think we are extremely well
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positioned in our natural laboratory
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to be able to develop some
of these biogtechnologies
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Being able to support
and deal with a lot of
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legacy issues that the
mining industry is facing
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Not only in Sudbury, but around the world
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So we're trying to find ways of
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having a real positive
impact on some of these
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enormous challenges
[233]
And in essence we're taking
something really small
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and using these tiny microbes
to have a big impact
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