Phytomining of rare earth elements – A review

The increasing demand for rare earth elements (REEs) for modern industry has led to a surge in mining activities and consequently has released these metals into the environment. Intensifying REEs in a habitat has impacts on its ecosystem, but on the other side, it also provides the opportunity to recover REEs from low-grade minerals. Phytomining has emerged as an ecologically sound technique to extract these valuable elements from contaminated soils where traditional mining is not competitive. This paper presents and reviews the concept of REE phytomining from three scientific areas. The accumulation of rare earth metals in plants is the first stage, referred to as the phytoextraction process. This is followed by elevating REE concentrations into bio-ores via the enrichment phase. Ultimately, extraction is the final step to complete the phytomining pathway for reclaiming REEs in brownfield land.