Microbial Mining and Metal Recovery: Corporations Take the Long and Cautious Path

Biotechnology is widely known to be a focus of interest in the pharmaceutical and diagnostics industries, but other industries are also investigating biotechnology's potential in some of the more esoteric areas. Although only one U.S. specialty company is now concentrating on application of biotechnology to the mining and metals industry—in contrast to the 150 or more new biotechnical companies specializing in medical or laboratory R&D—several major mining and metals companies are exploring potentially useful applications of microbial and genetic engineering techniques.