Rare Earth Elements (REEs) play an important role in our industrialised world, with their use expected to increase along with our technological needs. The extraction of REE are associated with a number of environmental issues, as the primary leaching technologies use multiple steps containing strong acids. The rate of REE extraction will no doubt continue to rise, and it is therefore necessary to begin the exploration for environmentally ‘friendly’ techniques. Because of the absolute requirement of phosphorous by the biosphere, a range of bioleaching studies have been carried out, examining the application of biogeochemical processes in REE solubilisation (Fathollahzadeh et al., 2018). In this study, the growth of Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans strain ATCC 19377 on thiosulphate was used to examine phosphorus acquisition, i.e., cell growth, and REE extraction from petrographic sections of Nolans Bore (NT) ore – a solid source of phosphorous. In this experimental system, individual A. thiooxidans cells were observed growing as a biofilm on the petrographic sections and in the planktonic phase. Remarkably, A. thiooxidans was found to preferentially colonise the REE enriched phosphate-bearing grains, producing a dispersion halo of secondary REE phosphates, presumably resulting from pH neutralisation away from the metabolising bacteria. In addition to exopolymer, cells were found associated with elemental sulphur produced from the disproportionation of thiosulphate at the mineral surface and in the fluid phase. The resulting leaching efficiency of the system was low, with <1% of the leached REEs remaining in solution. When this data is coupled with targeted-weathering by bacteria, the rate of weathering increases significantly, as only a fraction of the rock specimen is enriched with REE and therefore has significant evidence of alteration. The preferential colonisation and leaching of REE enriched material suggest that a lower impact biotechnological approach to REE recovery might be possible.