What is bioleaching method?

Bioleaching (or biomining) is a process in mining and biohydrometallurgy (natural processes of interactions between microbes and minerals) that extracts valuable metals from a low-grade ore with the help of microorganisms such as bacteria or archaea.

How is biomining done?

The most common processes used in biomining are: Heap leaching: freshly mined material is moved directly into heaps that are then bioleached. Dump leaching: low-value ore or waste rock is placed in a sealed pit and then bioleached to remove more of the valuable metals from the waste pile.

What is the difference between biomining and bioleaching?

The key difference between biomining and bioleaching is that biomining is the technique of using prokaryotes or fungi to extract metals from minerals whereas bioleaching is the technique of using bacteria to extract metals from minerals.

Which bacteria is used for gold bioleaching?

2.1 Thiobacillus. The bacteria most active in bioleaching belong to the genus Thiobacillus. These are Gram-negative, non-spore forming rods which grow under aerobic conditions.

How much does bioleaching cost?

Generally, the capital cost of a bioleaching operation is approximately 50 percent less than that of conventional smelting operation. This is mainly due to lack of infrastructural costs. The operating costs based on current technology for leaching dumps and ores are between 0.18 USD and 0.22 USD per pound of copper.

What are the disadvantages of Biomining?

There are many limitations to these processes, however. A few are the increased cost of mining and processing larger volumes of ore, the limited availability of freshwater needed to mine and process minerals, and the environmental impacts of increased land disruption, waste material, and pollution.

Which bacteria is considered for biological leaching?

Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, Acidithiobacillus caldus, Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans, and Acidithiobacillus ferrivorans are the well-known and widely studied microorganism for bioleaching due to their capability to oxidize the sulfidic minerals (Johnson, 2014).

Is bioleaching better than Phytomining?

BIOLEACHING is very similar to phytomining, BUT there are some differences….