Bacteria signpost gold deposits. Gold prospectors could use changes in soil bugs to uncover new reserves of the precious metal [New Scientist]
Given that there are life forms that can live on petrochemicals, why shouldn't there be baccili that are indicators of gold in an area? I wonder if the same holds true for the prospecting of other minerals.
If we can determine the likelyhood of finding diamonds by the makeup of the geology of a region (coal seam near an formerly active volcano, so you have a high pressure/temperature field in which to "grow" the diamonds) couldn't we apply the same criteria to finding gold? Likewise, what baccili serve as flags for diamonds? Time will tell.
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