Could This Newly Discovered Gold-Loving Massive Fungus Reveal New Gold Deposits In Australia?

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(Kitco News) – Australian scientists discovered a new type of fungus that contains nanoparticles it absorbs from deposits below the surface.

The discovery, published in the Nature Communications newspaper last week, Tsing Bohu, Tsing Bohu, CSIRO, CSIRO, CSIRO, CSIRO, CSIRO, CSIRO, and the geomicrobiologist of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).

"We show fungi, a major driver of mineral bioweathering, can initiate gold oxidation under Earth surface conditions, which is

The strain of the Fusarium oxysporum fungus, which looks like a fluffy pink organism that is surrounded by nanoparticles, was found in Boddington, Western Australia, located about 80 miles south-east of Perth.

"Fungi can oxidise tiny particles of gold and precipitate it on their strands – this cycling process is distributed around the Earth's surface," Bohu said.

The researchers made the discovery when microbes found in the gold-rich soil of Western Australia.

What makes this fungus unique is its ability to dissolve gold by producing a chemical known as superoxide. After dissolving the metal, the fungus can then turn to the absorbed metal back into solid form, the report highlighted.

"We observed the precipitation of gold on the surface of the fungus," Bohu stated. "Gold is so chemically inactive that this interaction is both unusual and surprising – it had to be seen."

Image Courtesy of CSIRO: Colored image of the gold-coated Fusarium oxsporum fungi

The research team will continue to investigate the effects of fungus in the future.

"CSIRO chief research scientist" Ravi Anand said. "We want to understand the fungus we studied.

Gold prospectors, however, should not be approached by the United States of America in the United States, but it can only be spotted under a microscope.

Either way, the news could be big for Australia – the world's second-largest gold producer, especially because of the nation's gold output is projected to decline in the next five years, according to the S & P Global Market Intelligence report published in April.

It is estimated that the mining nation will fall into fourth place by 2024, surpassed by Canada and Russia.

"Australia's production is expected to fall the most. The current second-largest gold producing nation behind China is expected to fall to fourth place globally in 2024, "S & P's Global Market Intelligence Analyst Christopher Galbraith said.