Did you know that plants can mine metals? It is called phytomining. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytomining You can use it to get rid of heavy metals from soil so you can use the ground for growing food. But you can also use the plant to extract rare metals like cobalt for example. If you compare it to the traditional mining in congo where they call it blood cobalt, mining by plants is not harmfull to nature or people. In malaysia there is a tree that mines cobalt. Simultaneous hyperaccumulation of nickel and cobalt in the tree Glochidion cf. sericeum https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6018747/ So maybe the future is not about technology but about nature.