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Phytoremediation could be used for more than just soil remediation. Bruce Conard speculates that Inco might commercially farm nickel in the future by growing crops of Alyssum murale (shown in the photos) on its nickel-rich older tailings near Sudbury, or on certain lateritic material in Indonesia and New Caledonia that is too low-grade to process conventionally. It's possible that different plants could be used in rotation to remove the nickel, copper, cobalt and precious metals, and then the plow layer scraped aside, exposing a new layer of soil for farming.