Harnessing Soudan Mine Microbes: Bioremediation, Bioenergy and Biocontrol

The Soudan Iron Mine near Ely, Minnesota is no longer an active mine and is now part of a state park, as well as the home to a state-of-the-art physics laboratory at the bottom of the mine. The mine has also been discovered to contain an extreme environment in the form of an ancient and very salty brine bubbling up from a half-mile below the Earth’s surface through holes drilled when the mine was active. Strange microorganisms – part of an ecosystem never before characterized by science – have been found living in the brine. Scientists from the University of Minnesota will use this appropriation to continue to study this unique ecosystem and its organisms and build upon findings from a previous Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund supported effort to explore potential applications of using the microorganisms living there for removing metals from mine waters, producing biofuels, and developing a biocontrol for White-Nose Syndrome, which is decimating bat populations around the country.