Dr Philip Nti Nkrumah

Honorary Fellow

CMLR

+61 7 3346 4019

p.nkrumah@uq.edu.au

Biogeochemistry of trace elements in soil-hyperaccumulator plants systems

Dr Philip Nti Nkrumah is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation (CMLR). His research primarily focusses on the biogeochemistry of trace elements (manganese, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, palladium and platinum) in soil-hyperaccumulator plants systems. Philip has made significant advances in knowledge in the field, including pioneering work on tropical nickel phytomining at a field-scale in Malaysia, providing a full-scale demonstration of the technology in the Asia-Pacific Region. Philip has published the outcomes of his research in leading journals, including Scientific Reports, Plant and Soil, and the Journal of Geochemical Exploration. As of August 2019, Philip has 272 citations from his 30 publications and an h-index of 9 (citation data from Google Scholar).

Philip has project managed a number of industry-funded research projects on rare metallophyte plants. He is currently working on a project ‘Metallophyte plant species and ecotypes at Dugald River - A forgotten resource’ that is being funded by MMG Australia Limited (2018– 2019). He received the prestigious award of ‘UQ Early Career Researcher Grant’ to support his innovative research activities at UQ (January–December 2019). He also won the Sustainable Minerals Institute’s Excellence Award, which allowed him to undertake research in South Africa. These opportunities have enabled him to build expertise and facilities that forms the foundation of his research career.

Apart from his primary research activities (including PhD student mentorship) at CMLR, Philip is also a coordinator and lecturer of the course Environmental Management in Mining at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at UQ.

Funding

Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship (2014–2018)
French National Research Agency through the national “Investissements d’avenir” program (ANR-10-LABX-21-LABEX RESSOURCES21) (2014–2018)
Sustainable Minerals Institute’s Excellence Award (2016)
UQ Early Career Researcher Grant (2019)

Publications

Journal Articles (26)

Journal Articles

Corzo-Remigio, Amelia, Harris, Hugh H., Kidman, Clinton J., Nkrumah, Philip Nti, Casey, Lachlan W., Paterson, David J., Edraki, Mansour and van der Ent, Antony (2024). Mechanisms of uptake and translocation of thallium in Brassica vegetables: An x-ray fluorescence microspectroscopic investigation. Environmental Science and Technology, 58 (5), 2373-2383. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.3c08113

Nkrumah, Philip Nti and van der Ent, Antony (2023). Possible accumulation of critical metals in plants that hyperaccumulate their chemical analogues?. Science of The Total Environment, 878 162791, 1-9. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162791

van der Ent, Antony, Nkrumah, Philip Nti, Purwadi, Imam and Erskine, Peter D. (2023). Rare earth element (hyper)accumulation in some Proteaceae from Queensland, Australia. Plant and Soil, 485 (1-2), 247-257. doi: 10.1007/s11104-022-05805-7

Corzo Remigio, Amelia , Nkrumah, Philip Nti, Pošćić, Filip, Edraki, Mansour, Baker, Alan J. M. and van der Ent, Antony (2022). Thallium accumulation and distribution in Silene latifolia (Caryophyllaceae) grown in hydroponics. Plant and Soil, 480 (1-2), 1-14. doi: 10.1007/s11104-022-05575-2

Nkrumah, Philip Nti, Corzo Remigio, Amelia and van der Ent, Antony (2022). Proof-of-concept of polymetallic phyto-extraction of base metal mine tailings from Queensland, Australia. Plant and Soil, 480 (1-2), 1-19. doi: 10.1007/s11104-022-05586-z

Whitworth, Anne J, Vaughan, James, Southam, Gordon, van der Ent, Antony, Nkrumah, Philip N, Ma, Xiaodong and Parbhakar-Fox, Anita (2022). Review on metal extraction technologies suitable for critical metal recovery from mining and processing wastes. Minerals Engineering, 182 107537, 107537. doi: 10.1016/j.mineng.2022.107537

Abubakari, Farida, Nkrumah, Philip Nti, Fernando, Denise R., Erskine, Peter D. and van der Ent, Antony (2022). Manganese accumulation and tissue-level distribution in Australian Macadamia (Proteaceae) species. Environmental and Experimental Botany, 193 104668, 104668. doi: 10.1016/j.envexpbot.2021.104668

Tang, Roger H., Erskine, Peter D., Nkrumah, Philip Nti, Echevarria, Guillaume and van der Ent, Antony (2021). Soil-plant relationships of metallophytes of the zinc-lead-copper Dugald River gossan, Queensland, Australia. Plant and Soil, 471 (1-2), 227-245. doi: 10.1007/s11104-021-05209-z

Abubakari, Farida, Nkrumah, Philip Nti, Flottmann, Jonty, Alizadeh, Arezu and van der Ent, Antony (2021). Fluoride hyperaccumulation in Gastrolobium species (Fabaceae) from Western Australia. Australian Journal of Botany, 69 (8), 516-526. doi: 10.1071/bt21037

Nkrumah, Philip Nti, Echevarria, Guillaume, Erskine, Peter D., Chaney, Rufus L., Sumail, Sukaibin and van der Ent, Antony (2021). Contrasting phosphorus (P) accumulation in response to soil P availability in ‘metal crops’ from P‑impoverished soils. Plant and Soil, 467 (1-2), 155-164. doi: 10.1007/s11104-021-05075-9

Nkrumah, Philip Nti, Erskine, Peter D. , Erskine, Joseph D. and van der Ent, Antony (2021). Rare earth elements (REE) in soils and plants of a uranium-REE mine site and exploration target in Central Queensland, Australia. Plant and Soil, 464 (1-2), 375-389. doi: 10.1007/s11104-021-04956-3

Abubakari, Farida, Nkrumah, Philip Nti, Erskine, Peter D., Brown, Gillian K., Fernando, Denise R., Echevarria, Guillaume and van der Ent, Antony (2021). Manganese (hyper)accumulation within Australian Denhamia (Celastraceae): an assessment of the trait and manganese accumulation under controlled conditions. Plant and Soil, 463 (1-2), 205-223. doi: 10.1007/s11104-021-04833-z

Vaughan, James , Tungpalan, Kate , Parbhakar-Fox, Anita , Fu, Weng, Gagen, Emma , Nti Nkrumah, Philip , Southam, Gordon, van der Ent, Antony, Erskine, Peter, Gow, Paul and Valenta, Rick (2020). Toward Closing a Loophole: Recovering Rare Earth Elements from Uranium Metallurgical Process Tailings. JOM, 73 (1), 39-53. doi: 10.1007/s11837-020-04451-7

Paul, Adrian L. D. , Nkrumah, Philip Nti , Echevarria, Guillaume , Erskine, Peter D. , Chaney, Rufus L. , Spiers, Kathryn M. , Sumail, Sukaibin and van der Ent, Antony (2020). Cobalt hyperaccumulation in Rinorea cf. bengalensis (Violaceae) from Sabah: accumulation potential and tissue and cellular-level distribution of cobalt. Plant and Soil, 455 (1-2), 289-303. doi: 10.1007/s11104-020-04629-7

van der Ent, Antony, Echevarria, Guillaume, Nkrumah, Philip Nti and Erskine, Peter D. (2020). Frequency distribution of foliar nickel is bimodal in the ultramafic flora of Kinabalu Park (Sabah, Malaysia). Annals of Botany, 126 (6), 1017-1027. doi: 10.1093/aob/mcaa119

Nkrumah, Philip Nti, Echevarria, Guillaume, Erskine, Peter D., Chaney, Rufus L., Sumail, Sukaibin and van der Ent, Antony (2019). Effect of nickel concentration and soil pH on metal accumulation and growth in tropical agromining ‘metal crops’. Plant and Soil, 443 (1-2), 27-39. doi: 10.1007/s11104-019-04200-z

Nkrumah, Philip Nti, Echevarria, Guillaume, Erskine, Peter D., Chaney, Rufus L., Sukaibin Sumail and Van der Ent, Antony (2019). Soil amendments affecting nickel uptake and growth performance of tropical ‘metal crops’ used for agromining. Journal of Geochemical Exploration, 203, 78-86. doi: 10.1016/j.gexplo.2019.03.009

Nkrumah, Philip Nti, Tisserand, Romane, Chaney, Rufus L., Baker, Alan J.M., Morel, Jean Louis, Goudon, Romain, Erskine, Peter D., Echevarria, Guillaume and van der Ent, Antony (2019). The first tropical ‘metal farm’: some perspectives from field and pot experiments. Journal of Geochemical Exploration, 198, 114-122. doi: 10.1016/j.gexplo.2018.12.003

van der Ent, Antony, Nkrumah, Philip Nti, Tibbett, Mark and Echevarria, Guillaume (2018). Evaluating soil extraction methods for chemical characterization of ultramafic soils in Kinabalu Park (Malaysia). Journal of Geochemical Exploration, 196, 235-246. doi: 10.1016/j.gexplo.2018.10.004

Nkrumah, Philip Nti, Echevarria, Guillaume, Erskine, Peter Damian and van der Ent, Antony (2018). Correction to:Nickel hyperaccumulation in Antidesma montis-silam: from herbarium discovery to collection in the native habitat. Ecological Research, 33 (5), 1087-1087. doi: 10.1007/s11284-018-1601-5

Nkrumah, Philip N., Echevarria, Guillaume, Erskine, Peter D. and van der Ent, Antony (2017). Nickel hyperaccumulation in Antidesma montis-silam: from herbarium discovery to collection in the native habitat. Ecological Research, 33 (3), 1-11. doi: 10.1007/s11284-017-1542-4

Nkrumah, Philip Nti, Baker, Alan J. M., Chaney, Rufus L., Erskine, Peter D., Echevarria, Guillaume, Morel, Jean Louis and van der Ent, Antony (2016). Current status and challenges in developing nickel phytomining: an agronomic perspective. Plant And Soil, 406 (1-2), 55-69. doi: 10.1007/s11104-016-2859-4

Huang, J., Appiah-Sefah, G., Nkrumah, N. P. and Li, J. (2016). Magnolia grandiflora for monitoring trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene contamination of groundwater. Fresenius Environmental Bulletin, 25 (3), 783-792.

Huang, Jing Yu, Appiah-Sefah, Gloria and Nti Nkrumah, Philip (2013). Identification of Trichloroethene in Groundwater Using Trees. Advanced Materials Research, 864-867, 919-925. doi: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.864-867.919

Zhang, Jian, Zhai, Jian Feng, Wang, Xian Mei and Nkrumah, Philip Nti (2013). Comparative Studies on E-Waste Disposal Practices in Developing Countries and their Environmental Effects: An Example between Guiyu, China and Agbogbloshie, Ghana. Advanced Materials Research, 838-841, 2701-2706. doi: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.838-841.2701

Ofosu Anim, Desmond, Kabo-bah, Amos Tiereyangn, Nkrumah, Philip Nti and Murava, Raphinos Tackmore (2013). Evaluation of NDVI Using SPOT-5 Satellite Data for Northern Ghana. Environmental Management and Sustainable Development, 2 (1). doi: 10.5296/emsd.v2i1.3709