A new way of mining
The specialty of nickel hyper-accumulator plants is that they absorb materials that, if left in the soil, will become toxic pollutants. At the same time, the material is extremely valuable — nickel is used in the manufacture of a wide range of products, from kitchen faucets to electric car batteries. Collecting nickel from plants is also a relatively easy process. Van der Ent from the University of Queensland calculated that a single hyper-accumulator plant such as Phyllantus balgoyii could produce around 120 kilograms of nickel per hectare each year.
This is worth around US$1,754 (Rp 26 million) market price per hectare. Extracting nickel can be done by harvesting the shoots — where most of the nickel is stored — then burning them so that the nickel can then be separ
