New Iron-Eating Microbe Major Component of Mining Pollution and Iron and Sulfur Cycling
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Mining operations expose minerals to air and water, causing the formation of extremely acidic metal-rich waters known as acid mine drainage (AMD). Ferroplasma acidarmanus has an ability to transform the sulfide found in metal ores to heavy metal-bearing sulfuric acid, the major contaminating solution draining into nearby rivers, streams and groundwater.
At Iron Mountain, an AMD site, researchers found that the iron-oxidizing bacterium Thiobacillus ferroxidans, previously thought to be the most important iron-oxidizing species, played only a minor role. Instead, F. acidarmanus makes up the majority of the microbial population. Its ability to survive and tolerate such acidic conditions when most life forms would perish raises many questions about the role the new species may play in moving life-sustaining elements around the planet and possibly the existence of life on other planets.
Iron Mountain has extremely high concentrations of iron, copper, arsenic, cadmium and zinc in solution. The researchers collected samples of mine water from the pyrite ore body about 500 meters into the mountain during the summer, when the solutions in the mine are concentrated due to lack of rainfall. The new organism was cultured and isolated from these samples, and then molecular probes were used to identify gene sequences that were similar to the isolate in natural samples. The team quantitatively determined that this organism dominated many of the sub-surface environments at the mine.
F. acidarmanus is a member of the microbial kingdom Archaea, one of the three major life groups on Earth. The other two groups are Eukarya, which includes humans, plants and animals, and Bacteria.
http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=12467&tid=282&cid=988
= new reply since forum marked as read
For a while the owner (instead of actually cleaning up the site) wanted to put a 200-foot Jesus statue up there.
Redding. 
Ted Arman says he has a plan to turn what the government considers some of the world's most polluted water into plant fertilizer.
Arman flatly disputes claims the water is toxic.
He merely has to remove the arsenic from the water and it becomes an excellent fertilizer, Arman said.
"The entire property is a gift from God, and he wants me to do something with it — for good, not evil like the EPA," Arman said.
http://www.redding.com/news/2012/jan/02/mine-water-safety-debate/
It could go either way. 
After all, the whole article talked about delicate microbes thriving in that environment.
Oh, I'd better add one of these: 
whats the problem? </sarcasm>
