[Heronymus_Anon]

There was a story in a Donald Duck comic, i read as a kid, where Dagobert extracted Gold with the help of a "Gold Flower" in a piece of land, where the gold concentration was to low for manual mining.

Always thought, and got reassured through a study a few years ago about plants that genetically adapted to otherwise toxic amounts of nickel in rainforest areas (linked on HN), that this could be a way to extract minerals in a future more slowed down and sustainable utopian society.

Also really interesting are ways to detox soils through plants. Unfortunately, a local pioneer project for extracting industrial contamination, and than making biogas from the plants, was stopped, because it was just cost covering but not really creating monetary profit. A sad example of, how shortsighted the instant profit capitalism will act, if longterm effects are not integrated into the equation through regulations.

But what to expect from a species that puts great effort into spreading cultivation of seedless wine grapes, just to realize that grapeseeds have live prolonging effects. ; )

[regularfry]

I remember one of my teachers about 35 years ago telling us about a specific fern that concentrated gold in its roots. I can't remember the name of it but I'd recognise it by sight. It was interesting because as an organism it's virtually unchanged in appearance since examples of it were laid down in the coal layers. So it's not an unlikely story at all.

[regularfry]

A flash of memory immediately after hitting reply and a quick google brings me to https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/037567... - looks like gold accumulation is a myth, but it tends to accumulate arsenic which can be an indicator for the presence of gold.

[selimthegrim]

I have to wonder whether Dorfman and Mattelart got to that one