You must have heard the story of the duck that laid the golden eggs. A small rod-shaped bacteria called Cupriavidus metallidurans, which lives in the soil, has amazed scientists with its strange ability to lay golden eggs. It converts toxic metals, especially copper and gold, present in the soil into inactive solid gold. And this creates tiny gold grains. Two important enzymes—CupA and CopA—work behind this work. CupA usually removes excess copper from the cell and deposits it in a space called the periplasm, so that the toxic effect is reduced. Because, even though a little copper is needed, too much copper is toxic to bacteria.
But trouble arises when gold ions appear. Here, an ion is the form of gold that has lost one or more electrons, resulting in an unstable state. The gold ions practically immobilize CupA. Then the copper also gets trapped inside, and the gold also accumulates—both are fatal. Then CopA is activated, which removes electrons from the copper and gold ions and converts them into stable metal particles. These tiny gold particles then accumulate in the periplasm, where they are no longer harmful. In time, the outer membrane of the bacteria bursts, and the gold particles come out. This is how the bacteria actually creates gold while surviving!
Currently, toxic chemicals like mercury are used in gold extraction. Which are equally harmful to the environment and humans. But if humans can mimic this bacterial process, then gold can be extracted in an environmentally friendly way even from ores containing very little gold.
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