Why can copper grass find copper mines?

1949, geologist Woodward visited Kacanggua in the northwest of Zambia. One day, he came across a blue-flowered lipped herb that he had never seen before. Locals call it "his Basil". After further investigation, he also found that the copper content in the soil is very high wherever it is suitable for the growth of this grass.

These two accidents prompted him to carry out cultivation experiments on this grass to study why there is always more copper in the soil where this grass grows, and whether there is a connection between grass and copper.

After the experiment, he finally got information and inspiration from it, which can be traced back to the copper mine. As a result, he finally found a large copper mine with a reserve of 900 million tons, and its forerunner was this factory, so it was named "Cao Tong".

It is a universal law that flowers and plants "report to the mine". 1934, there are two chemists in Czechoslovakia. When they studied the chemical composition of corn in the suburb of Waslan, they found that there were "filaments" and small pieces of metal in corn ash with a microscope. Strange! Like gold, these things can only be dissolved in aqua regia. Could it be gold? They analyzed the soil and ore there and found that each ton of ore did contain about 0.2 grams of gold. How did gold get into the corn kernels? Further research shows that corn and other plants can absorb gold and other metal elements from the soil and accumulate them.

Obviously, the reason why plants "report minerals" is that there are various minerals in the nutrients they absorb, and different plants have different choices about which minerals to absorb. The research shows that: Artemisia argyi manganese mine, Tiekumabao iron mine, Qicao Bajiao zinc mine, Shisongbao aluminum mine, Zhonglinghuabao apatite mine, Malva nickel mine, alfalfa molybdenum mine and tantalum mine, etc. Plants such as buckwheat, cucumber, radish and Chinese milk vetch can also help to find uranium and thorium minerals, because uranium and thorium will emit invisible rays, which have a great impact on plant physiology. In addition, there is a plant called Elsholtzia Haizhou along the Yangtze River in China, which can also be used to report copper mines like copper grass.

China Tang Dynasty's "West Block Miscellany" notes: "There is silver under the onion on the mountain, gold under the onion on the mountain, copper and tin under the ginger on the mountain, Baoyu on the mountain, and branches hanging from the trees." It shows that ancestors have long known the law of plants reporting minerals.

Not only plants can report minerals, but animals can also report minerals. For example, in Venezuela, South America, there is a bird with gray feathers. It often perches on a branch called "Mora" and makes a harsh cry, which can be heard from a distance. Usually, as long as you look for it, you can find gold-bearing veins near the birds. Therefore, people call it "the miner's bird". Why can animals report mines? It turns out that Mora trees only grow near gold-bearing veins, and miners and birds like to live on Mora trees. In addition, there are dogs, ants, bees and so on. You can also help people find mines.

Taking advantage of the special relationship between the above-mentioned organisms and mineral deposits, Canadian scientists are also ingenious and take a "cursory tour" of prospecting by plane. Because some plants absorb metal mineral elements, they will form metal organic matter, which will be discharged from plants through leaves and pollen. These metal organics will float into the air with the wind, and after being captured by the instruments on the plane, they will know what metal minerals are underground.

Using plants for exploration was also first invented by China people. Temple, an American scholar, said in China: The Country of Invention-History of Science and Technology in China: "There is a certain relationship between the plant communities growing in a certain area and the minerals contained in the area, and the people of China were the first to pay attention to and make use of this relationship." The time of this invention can be known from Shan Hai Jing and Wen Zi, which recorded the situation of plant exploration. The time is about five or six hundred BC. The invention of this method abroad is about 2000 years later than that of China. About 1600, Sir Thomas Charone of England and his cousin Charone discovered the first aluminum mine on the former property of Berman Bank in Gismal, Yorkshire, England. At that time, they saw that the leaves of oak trees were darker, the branches were longer, the trunk was shorter and stronger, and there was almost no sap and no deep roots. These contents are recorded in a manuscript of Yorkshire Cathedral.