Metal-rich soils and mainly ultramafic soils (i.e. serpentine soils) that are widespread over the Balkans and especially in Albania are a major problem for the development of agriculture due to toxicity of trace metals. The soils of this region are generally toxic (nutrient deficiency and toxic metal concentrations) to all cultivated crops and provide low-grade forage for cattle contributing in part to the widespread poverty and lack of rural development in these areas.

The recovery of such metals from soils with hyperaccumulator plant crops as an alternative to traditional agriculture holds a potential for the rural development of these areas as well as for the local mining and metallurgical industry.

Nickel is the most accumulated metal among hyperaccumulator plants with more than 400 plant species reported to hyperaccumulate Ni in their shoot tissues (i.e. concentrations above 1 000 mg kg-1) and most of them easily reach 1% Ni in their leaf tissues (and 1.6% in seeds and flower) when growing in soils with sufficient Ni availability.

This project will to sum up the economic feasibility of each step in the process of phyto-mining verifying the environmental and social sustainability of the process.