A study found that viruses, which are known mainly as agents that cause disease, can extract rare earths—the minerals that go into advanced devices—in an eco-friendly way. It is so-called biomining, obtaining minerals using microorganisms. The technology, already proven in copper extraction, also showed effectiveness in rare earth extraction, which has even sparked U.S.-China economic tensions. The results are still at the laboratory level, but if the research advances, it is expected to lead to rare earth production that is inexpensive and harmless to the environment.
University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) said on the 12th (local time), "Professor Lee Seung-uk of the Department of Bioengineering has developed a groundbreaking, sustainable biomining technology that uses genetically modified bacteriophage viruses to extract rare earths." The findings were published in the international journal Nano Letters.
◇ Offering an eco-friendly alternative for rare earth mining
Rare earths include 17 types: the 15 lanthanide elements from atomic number 57 (lanthanum) to 71 (lutetium), as well as 21 (scandium, Sc) and 39 (yttrium, Y). They are used as essential materials in advanced industries, such as high-performance magnets for electric vehicles and wind turbines and phosphors that illuminate smartphone displays.
Although they are called rare earths to mean they are scarce, quantities are abundant except for some. Cerium is the 25th most abundant element in the Earth's crust, with reserves similar to copper. However, unlike other mineral elements, they do not exist in concentrated forms, making mining difficult. Lee said, "This virus biomining technology offers an eco-friendly alternative to conventional rare earth mining methods that emit toxic chemicals and polluting waste."
Lee's team turned bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria such as E. coli, into recycling machines. The team modified viral genes to add two proteins to the surface. One becomes a "molecular claw" that binds to lanthanide rare earths, and the other is elastin, a protein that gives skin its elasticity, which serves as a temperature switch. When the temperature rises, the viruses aggregate, concentrating and releasing the captured rare earths.
The team demonstrated the efficiency of virus biomining using actual mine wastewater. They added bacteriophages to a mixture of metals from mine wastewater. The viruses immediately attached only to rare earth elements. When they heated the solution mixing the wastewater and bacteriophages, the viruses clumped together and settled to the bottom of the vessel. After removing the liquid, only a precipitate concentrated with viruses and rare earths remained. Finally, by adjusting the acidity (pH) of the precipitate, the viruses released the rare earths again.
Lee said, "What is noteworthy is that the viruses do not lose effectiveness even after completing the capture and release of rare earths, so they can be reused," adding, "Bacteriophages replicate themselves when they infect bacteria, making mass production easy and inexpensive."
◇ Capable of capturing battery materials and removing heavy metals
Professor Lee Seung-uk graduated from Korea University's Department of Chemistry and received a Ph.D. from Texas State University. Lee has been a professor at UC Berkeley since 2006. Over the past 20 years, Lee has developed sensors that detect diseases and hazardous substances using genetically modified viruses and piezoelectric devices that convert pressure changes into electricity. Lee said, "The technology we developed this time can be used not only for mine wastewater but also to recover rare earths from e-waste or to remediate the environment."
Lee said that by expressing different proteins on the surface of bacteriophages, they can be tuned to selectively capture other critical elements such as lithium or cobalt used in batteries, and platinum-group metals used as catalysts. Lee further noted that they could also be used to remove toxic heavy metals such as mercury or lead from water.
Biomining has moved beyond laboratory research to real-world industrial use. For billions of years, bacteria on Earth have secreted acidic substances onto rocks and triggered chemical reactions to extract materials needed for survival. As byproducts, essential elements for electronic devices, such as nickel and lithium, are produced. On Earth, 20% of copper and gold comes from biomining like this.
Scientists have also confirmed the potential of biomining in space. In 2020, a University of Oxford team said that after a three-week experiment, a bacterium called Sphingomonas desiccabilis successfully extracted rare earth elements such as lanthanum, neodymium, and cerium from basalt on the International Space Station, where gravity is near zero, just as on Earth.
Biomining has already become a technology attracting large-scale investment. On the 12th, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that biomining Start - Up Endolith raised $13.5 million (Hanwha 19.7 billion won) in initial funding. WSJ said Endolith will soon raise an additional $3 million in a second round, bringing total funding to about $16.5 million. The company has developed technology that applies artificial intelligence (AI) to dramatically boost microbes' copper-mining capabilities, WSJ reported.
◇ Rediscovered as a weapon against antibiotic-resistant bacteria
The bacteriophages that mined rare earths were first used in medicine. In 1917, French microbiologist Felix d'Herelle gave them their current name from Greek, meaning "to eat bacteria." They are called "phages" for short. Bacteriophages attracted attention as therapeutics immediately after their discovery. In the 1920s and 1930s, they were used to treat various bacterial diseases such as dysentery and sepsis. But as penicillin antibiotics became widely used in the 1940s, they gradually faded from use.
Bacteriophage therapies have recently been rediscovered due to the misuse and overuse of antibiotics. As antibiotics have been used indiscriminately not only in people but also in livestock, antibiotics have spread into nature through excreta and other routes. Bacteria then evolved the ability to withstand antibiotics. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have spread worldwide in recent years.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) said, "Bacteriophages have emerged as a new hope against antibiotic-resistant bacteria." Antibiotics have the drawback of killing even beneficial gut bacteria while targeting pathogens. Each bacteriophage infects different bacteria, so this problem does not arise. There is also little concern about resistance developing. Beneficial to humans, the viruses are expanding their stage of activity from hospitals to mines.
References
Nano Letters (2025). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5c04468
Nature Communications (2020), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19276-w