Indonesia Has the World’s Largest Gold-Producing Plant, How Could It Be?

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Apart from mining, Indonesia has gold producers through other sources, namely through plants. Although it does not produce gold directly, this plant can absorb heavy metals in the soil through the biological food chain.

Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) Plant Biology expert, Prof. Hamim revealed that plants have a physiological mechanism that makes them have the ability to absorb heavy metals.

He said, there are several types of plants that can absorb heavy metals in large quantities in their tissues or are called hyperaccumulators. Because of this ability, the plant can be used as an environmental cleaning agent known as phytoremediation.

This gold-producing plant is said to be widely spread in eastern Indonesia, especially Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku to Papua.

“In addition to being used as phytoremediation, this plant can also be used to mine metals that have high economic value such as nickel silver, gold, platinum, and thallium or an activity known as phytomining,” explained Hamim.

The area where this plant thrives has high metal content such as serpentine and ultramafic soils.

However, he sees that the potential of hyperaccumulator plants there has not been exploited optimally. There needs to be attention from various parties so that the potential can be explored and utilized for phytoremediation and phytomining.

For example, the results of plant exploration around the tailings dam (a waste location for separating precious metal ores from non-economical materials) from the gold mine of PT Antam UBPE Pongkor. Almost all types of plants there can accumulate gold even at low levels.

So, what kind of plants can produce this gold? Hamim said that one of the gold-producing plants is the spinach-spinach group.

“The amaranth-spinach (Amaranthus) group that grows around the tailings has the highest gold accumulation ability, but because of its low biomass, its phytomining potential is low.

The Lembang plant (Typha angustifolia) is also quite high in accumulating gold metal (Au). Typha can produce 5-7 grams of gold per hectare. This of course requires further investigation,” he explained.