by Ria Duana A Roble

XU’s Research and Social Outreach cluster (RSO) organized a talk entitled “Can phytoremediation be used to mitigate the impacts of mining?” on Nov 28 at the Little Theater, with Dr Augustine Doronila as resource speaker. Dr Doronila is a Philippine Balik-Scientist and a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. He shared his expertise in environmental chemistry and restoration ecology. He emphasized that certain hyper-accumulator plants are efficient in extracting mineral residues in post-mining areas. Some of these plants are found locally.

A research presentation update on the nursery propagation of local hyper-accumulator plants in Manresa Farm was also given by Ms Jean Apuan.

The lecture was attended by the faculty and students of XU mainly from the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Agriculture. Other guests came from the DENR 10, Technology Outreach and Community Help (TOUCH) Foundation, Inc., Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB 10), Holcim Phils, Inc., MCCI Corporation, Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro and Mindanao University of Science and Technology (MUST).

The said lecture and discussion was organized through the support of the faculty of the Biology and Chemistry Departments, and the staff and personnel of the McKeough Marine Center.