Phytomining: The Future of Sustainable EV Battery Metals
Cultivating a Greener Tomorrow: Plants as the New Mines
Harnessing Nature's Power: The Concept of Phytomining
Researchers globally are exploring innovative solutions to support the decarbonization and electrification of transportation. A promising avenue involves cultivating robust, rapidly growing plants capable of absorbing vital metals, crucial for electric vehicle battery production, directly from the soil. These metals are subsequently harvested through processes that are both cleaner and more economical than traditional mining practices.
Nickel: A Critical Element Reimagined
Nickel stands as a prime example of a key component in contemporary electric vehicle batteries. Its conventional extraction, however, is often characterized by its environmental impact, high costs, and destructive nature. Enter Genomines, a French biotech startup, which proposes a groundbreaking alternative: extracting nickel from common daisies.
Introducing Genomines: Pioneering Plant-Based Extraction
The possibility of obtaining nickel and other valuable metals from plants is realized through phytomining. While ordinary plants typically don't accumulate sufficient metals for commercial extraction, Genomines has engineered 'hyperaccumulators.' These specialized plants naturally draw metals and minerals from the earth into their stems and leaves, where they can later be efficiently harvested.
Meeting Future Demand: The Vision of Genomines
Fabien Koutchekian, co-founder and CEO of Genomines, emphasizes the urgent need for substantial metal quantities to facilitate the energy transition, particularly for electric vehicle batteries and stainless steel. He notes that current conventional mining methods are insufficient to meet this escalating demand. Genomines projects that achieving the 2040 targets of the Paris Agreement, which aim to transition all global vehicles to electric, will necessitate a six-fold increase in today's worldwide metal output, potentially leading to numerous new and environmentally damaging mining operations.
From Destructive Mines to Productive Farms
Traditional mining operations are not only environmentally detrimental but frequently associated with human rights issues. Veronica Cabe, Chair of Amnesty International Philippines, highlights the severe consequences faced by Indigenous Peoples and rural communities due to the global pursuit of energy transition minerals, including inadequate consultation processes and negative impacts on health, livelihoods, and access to clean water.
A Sustainable Investment: Genomines' Impact
Genomines believes its high-performance, custom-engineered daisies can avert such ecological and societal harm. This vision has garnered significant investment, including over $45 million from a consortium featuring Hyundai and Tata, the parent company of Jaguar and Land Rover. Koutchekian articulates the company's mission: to utilize plant biotechnology for extracting vital resources for clean energy, employing scalable methods that safeguard biodiversity, soil health, and human welfare. Their ambition is to establish an entirely new sector for plant-derived metals, fundamentally rebalancing global mineral supply chains for decades to come.
Advantages of Phytomining: A Multi-faceted Solution
Genomines asserts that its methods are not only scalable but also offer numerous benefits over traditional mineral mining. These advantages include transforming unproductive lands into economic assets by operating in areas unsuitable for agriculture but rich in metals, establishing operational farms within 1-2 years compared to 12-17 years for conventional nickel mines, ensuring cleaner and more traceable extraction with 40-50% lower equipment and operational costs, and implementing scalable modular deployments for capital-efficient assets. Moreover, the hyperaccumulator plants capture carbon during growth, potentially making the entire process carbon-negative.
Global Potential and Future Outlook
Alex Hoffmann, General Partner at VC firm Forbion and a Genomines investor, states that Genomines' technology utilizes underutilized land by extracting nickel from low-concentration soils, avoiding competition with traditional agriculture. He believes this, combined with a structural cost advantage, positions Genomines to fundamentally alter critical metal extraction towards a more sustainable approach. Genomines estimates that approximately 30 to 40 million hectares globally contain enough nickel for their phytomining processes to satisfy the world's EV demands, representing 7-14 times the current mining output. The company is actively progressing at its South African site with 23 full-time staff, with further expansion anticipated.