Can Living Plants Produce Rare Earth Metals? Study Reveals

(MENAFN) Chinese scientists have successfully recovered rare earth minerals from living plants, a discovery they say could mark a groundbreaking step toward sustainable metal extraction.

The study, which was published in Environmental Science & Technology, involved collaboration between the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry in China and Virginia Tech in the United States.

Researchers collected hyperaccumulator plants—species capable of storing exceptionally high metal concentrations—along with the soil around them. Their analysis detected nanoscale monazite, a phosphate mineral usually formed under extreme heat and pressure, within the plants. The highest concentrations appeared in the pinna, followed by the root system and leaf stalk, the study reported.

The team noted that these plants could concentrate heavy metals and metalloids at levels “hundreds to thousands” of times higher than the surrounding soil.

The researchers highlighted the implications for phytomining, a method that leverages plants to extract valuable metals from soil. They suggested growing hyperaccumulator plants on metal-rich land and harvesting them to recover rare earth elements.

“By planting hyperaccumulator plants, high-value rare earths can be recovered from the plants while remediating polluted soil and restoring the ecology of rare earth tailings, thus realizing a green circular model of ‘remediation and recycling at the same time,’” the study said.

According to the researchers, monazite has multiple applications, including coatings, lasers, luminophores, diffusion barriers, ionic conductors, and radioactive waste management.

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