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I wondered that myself. They'd need a succession plan. But high concentrations of certain metals are toxic to many other plants. So maybe the nickel harvesting
by andrewl 7y ago
I wondered that myself. They'd need a succession plan. But high concentrations of certain metals are toxic to many other plants. So maybe the nickel harvesting plants are a first step to preparing the soil for another crop. Only this step allows the farmers to at least partially recover some of their investment in the cleaning step.
- pfdietz 7y agoAnother possibility would be to grind up olivine and spread that on the field. Olivine is a nesosilicate (orthosilicate) so it dissolves readily in weak acid conditions. And it's typically a few tenths of a percent nickel. The dissolution of olivine would liberate magnesium ions, which could react with water and CO2, permanently sequestering the CO2 as carbonate.
- manicdee 7y agoThe succession plan is reverting to stocks that can handle the elevated levels of nickel still remaining after the commercial viability of bioremediation has been exhausted.