"Mid-game" resource generation by hyperaccumulating organisms

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Summary

Before orbital laser drills are obtained, mass producing certain elements simply from ores will not be enough to meet resource demands. Constantly moving ore drills to new deposits can also get boring. However, with a bit of genetic engineering, organisms can be used to extract massive amounts of trace elements from rocks, dirt and other common substances.

Process

This uses a normal greenhouse process, where the contaminated soil, rock, or water is used to grow the hyperaccumulating organism, which is usually a GMO species of flower or tree. Once the organism is mature, it is harvested, and the collected materials are separated from the tissue of the organism. This can be made more efficient by GMO, and can infinitely mass produce certain materials from an infinite supply of contaminated materials such as sand, industrial wastewater, seawater, extraterrestrial soil, radioactive dirt, and normal dirt, rather than relying on ore deposits. GMO bacteria can be added to the soil to enhance material absorption.

To extract the metals from plant material, the harvested plants are pulverized and burnt to produce a metal-rich ash. This ash is then digested with nitric acid to make a solution with the metal nitrates. All the different types of metal nitrates are extracted from this solution using liquid-liquid extraction, based on what the nitrates are soluble in. Solubility data is easily found on wikipedia. The nitrates can then be converted to pure metal using chemistry.

Materials extracted from soil

Agrostis castellana (tall grass)

• Arsenic, manganese, lead, zinc

Brassica napus (rapeseed)

• Chrome, mercury, lead, selenium, zinc, silver

Pteris vittata (chinese brake fern)

• lots of arsenic

Brassica juncea (indian mustard)

• cadmium, chrome, copper, nickel, lead, uranium, selenium and zinc

Thlaspi caerulescens (pennycress)

• Molybdenum, cadmium, chrome, cobalt, copper, nickel, lead, zinc

Wheat

• Lead

Bassia scoparia (ragweed)

• Selenium, uranium, chrome, lead, mercury, silver, zinc

Brassica juncea (mustard flowers)

• Cadmium, zinc, cesium, nickel, strontium

Thlaspi cypricum

• LOTS of nickel

Red maple

• Cesium, Strontium, Plutonium

Sunflower

• Cesium, strontium, uranium

Amaranthus retroflexus

• Cesium, cadmium, nickel, strontium, zinc

Materials extracted from water

Eichhornia crassipes (hyacinth)

• cadmium, copper, mercury, lead, zinc, cesium, strontium, uranium

Salvinia molesta (water fern)

• Chrome, nickel, lead, zinc

Duckweed

• Lead, cadmium, copper, zinc

Bacopa monnieri

• chrome, copper, mercury, lead, cadmium

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hyperaccumulators
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperaccumulators_table_%E2%80%93_3