TINY flakes of gold have been “grown” in the laboratory by microbes from gold-bearing soil. Their ability to concentrate traces of gold could help explain why flakes and nuggets of gold are often found far from a seam, and could lead to improved prospecting techniques, say Australian researchers.
Frank Reith of the Australian National University in Canberra collected soil and gold samples from the Tomakin mine in New South Wales. In the mine itself, gold is very finely dispersed through the quartz rock, but if you pan for gold in the surrounding area, you find whole flakes. “The question is,…
