Twostep bioleaching of copper and gold from discarded. Bioleaching is a simple and effective technology for metal extraction from lowgrade ores and mineral concentrates. Pdf gold bioleaching from printed circuit boards of. Bioleaching is the extraction of metals from their ores through the use of buomining organisms. Bioleaching of gold, copper and nickel from waste cellular phone pcbs and. The latest versions of adobe reader do not support viewing pdf files within firefox on mac os and if you are using a modern intel mac. Although the tank bioleaching of refractory gold concentrates has found fairly widespread commercial application, the technology has not been transferred into the base metals industry. In fact, despite a plethora of hydrometallurgical processes being. The profit obtained from the speed and yield of smelting justifies its cost. Introduction gold has been known and highly valued since prehistoric times. An alternative green mining technology for 21st century. Pdf present and future of bioleaching in developing countries. Bioleaching is one of several applications within biohydrometallurgy and several methods are used to recover copper, zinc, lead, arsenic, antimony, nickel, molybdenum, gold, silver, and cobalt.
Silver is more readily solubilized than gold during microbial leaching of iron sulfide. Bioleaching experiments were conducted for the removal of heavy metals from mine tailings using a fungal strain isolated from the gold mine tailings and it was identified as a. Bioleaching of uranium was carried out with turamdih ore sample procured from uranium corporation of india limited, jaduguda. Gold ore is also preatreated by bioleaching in heaps by newmont mining in the carlin trend region, nevada. Heap or dump bioleaching, tank bioleaching, in situ or in place bioleaching. Bioleaching simple english wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Bioleaching of arsenicrich gold concentrates by bacterial. The liberation of the metal by use of bacteria involves a. The bioleaching and processing of refractory gold ore. In the industrial microbial leaching process popularly known as bioleachinglow grade ore is dumped in a large pile the leach dump and a dilute sulfuric acid solution ph 2 is percolated down through the pile.
Rebgolds bioleaching process produces gold and other metals remediates old tailings hd. For biomining specialized microorganisms are used in order to recover valuable metals from ores via bioleaching. Bioleaching of gold via heap biooxidation is proving to be an inexpensive method to oxidize sulfidic ores, including those that are low grade, difficult to concentrate or slow to biooxidize. Biotechnology economic geology metallurgical processes applied microbiology. Because of this flexibility, biooxidation can be effectively integrated into goldprocessing mills to achieve economical recovery from refractory ores. Traces of precious metals such as gold may be left in the original solution. Bioleaching of gold, copper and nickel from waste cellular. Nonsulfide ores and minerals can be treated by heterotrophic. This is much cleaner than the traditional heap leaching using cyanide. Use pdf download to do whatever you like with pdf files on the web and regain control.
It was induced by uv ultraviolet, ultrasonic, and microwave, and their. Leaching, often gold, is the process of extracting a soluble constituent from a solid by means of a solvent. The original mixed bacterial flora had been enrichedin acid mine drainage of dexing copper mine, jiangxi province, china. A method for leaching or dissolving gold from ores or. However, within a biooxidation heap, oxygen mass transfer limitations can limit the applicability of this technology, due to the large amount of oxygen. Chile has become a major developer of bioleaching on an industrial scale.
The bioleaching processes were carried out in onestep and spent medium leaching at 1%, 2%, 4% and 8% wv tailing concentrations. Review of biohydrometallurgical metals extraction from. When the carbon is loaded with enough gold it is removed from the circuit and sent to elution where the adsorption process is reversed and the gold is stripped off the carbon back into solution, electrowon and smelted into bars. Bioleaching of metal sulfides is caused by diverse groups of bacteria. Arsenopyrite oxidation, bioleaching, biohydrometallurgy, pyrite oxidation, refractory. In contrast, knowledge of metal bioleaching from weee by filamentous fungi is still scarce. Therefore, this study evaluated the tolerance to gold of four strains of aspergillus and the bioleaching efficiency of gold, copper and nickel from pcbs and gficms by aspergillusstrains with higher tolerance to gold.
If you would like to participate, you can edit the attached article, or visit the project page, where you can see a list of open tasks, join in the discussion, or join the project. Comparison of gold extraction yields by cyanide treatment. Bioleaching and biosorption of heavy metals from gold mine. It finds application in the extraction of metals from their ores. Metal recovery from sulfide minerals is based on the activity of chemolithotrophic bacteria, mainly thiobacillus ferrooxidans and t. In contrast, the bioleaching of cu by aspergillus niger mxpe6 was 24 and 5%. Gold bioleaching from printed circuit boards of mobile phones by aspergillus niger in a culture without agitation and with glucose as a carbon source. Major advances in bioleaching of gold ore were made when newmont mining corporation began laboratory investigations of biooxidation in the late 1980s. Start this article has been rated as startclass on the.
This article is within the scope of wikiproject mining, a collaborative project to organize and improve articles related to mining and mineral industries. Following the above, the work then focused on the bioleaching of the chalcopyrite concentrate in a stirred tank bioreactor for the purpose. Microbial leaching is the process by which metals are dissolved. The bacterial strain that was used in the leaching experiments was isolated from the jaduguda mine water sample. Moreover other biological organisms also have an immense possibility in the bioleaching of. Bioleaching has also some potential for metal recovery and detoxification of industrial waste products, sewage sludge and soil contaminated with heavy metals. The understanding and funding of bench, pilot, and fullscale programs is steadily increasing. In extractive metallurgy, of gold, it is the process of dissolving a certain mineral or minerals from an ore or a concentrate, or dissolving certain constituents from materials such as a calcines, mattes, scrap alloys, anodic slimes, etc. Bioleaching technology in minerals processing john neale mintek, biotechnology division private bag x3015, randburg, 2125, south africa bioleaching is a process that employs microorganisms to dissolve leach sulphide minerals. Bioleaching can be applied to various ore types through microbial generation of leach agents. April learn how and when to remove this template message.
Bioleaching can be applied to various ore types through microbial generation of. Bioleaching is one of several methods used to recover copper, zinc, lead, arsenic, antimony, nickel, molybdenum, gold, silver, and cobalt bioleaching uses certain types of bacteria to produce a solution called a leachate. Bioleaching of copper from low grade ore bornite using. In an effort to develop alternate techniques to recover metals from waste electrical and electronic equipment weee, this research evaluated the bioleaching efficiency of gold au, copper cu and nickel ni by two strains of aspergillus niger in the presence of gold plated finger integrated circuits found in computer motherboards gficms and cellular phone printed circuit boards pcbs. It was identified using bergeys manual of systematic bacteriology. Recent development has shown commercial application of the process and, concurrently, details pertaining to the key microorganisms involved in these processes have been described. Technological advances have taken biooxidation from a concept to commercial reality.
The bioleaching and processing of refractory gold ore springerlink. Bioleaching of heavy metals by sulfur oxidizing bacteria. Bioleaching where microorganisms are used to facilitate the mining of metals. This is much cleaner than the traditional method using cyanide. Bioleaching of gold can be performed using a number of different techniques and various microbes depending on the factors of the operation in question. Bioleaching and biomining pdf microbial leaching bioleaching, biomining. Pdf bioleaching copper recovery from mine waters in the mediterranean area 3000 years ago.
Rebgolds bioleaching process produces gold and other. It may have been the first metal used by humans and was valued for ornamentation and rituals. Bioleaching of gold, copper and nickel from waste cellular phone. Gold bioleaching is applied for the treatment of refractory gold ores. From in situ mining to mineral processing and treatment technology, biotechnology provides innovative and costeffective industry solutions. Au bioleaching ranged from 42 to 1% for aspergillus niger strain mxpe6. The dissolved gold in solution is adsorbed onto activated carbon. Commercial biomining applications have mainly targeted copper, gold, uranium, nickel, cobalt and zinc sulfides. What links here related changes upload file special pages permanent link page information. Gold ores need to be pretreated by roasting or by pressure oxidation to free the gold prior to cyanide leaching. In the case of gold mining, brazil, chile, ghana, indonesia.
Because the price of gold has risen many mineral companies now take 6. Microbial leaching is the process by which metals are dissolved from ore bearing rocks using microorganisms. At the current time, it is more economical to smelt copper ore rather than to use bioleaching, since the concentration of copper in its ore is in general quite high. Bioleaching is getting metals from their ores by using living organisms. Twostep bioleaching of copper and gold from discarded printed circuit boards pcb author links open overlay panel arda is. It contributes to the substantial development of a sustainable gold mining sector in that country and has the. In order to improve the bioleaching efficiency of arsenicrich gold concentrates, a mixed bacterial flora had been developed, and the mutation breeding method was adopted to conduct the research. Web to pdf convert any web pages to highquality pdf files. Because of this flexibility, biooxidation can be effectively integrated into gold processing. Bioleaching has enabled the transformation of uneconomic resources to reserves, and thus helped to alleviate the challenges related to continually declining ore grades. Consideration of influential factors on bioleaching of gold ore. Gold is obtained through bioleaching of arsenopyritepyrite ore and its cyanidation process. Bioleaching of gold by metabolic products of microorganisms has received less attention, but.
Today, biooxidation technology is successful in a range of conditions, from ideal to the most severe climates in the world. Gold and silver leaching todays microbial leaching of refractory precious metal ores to enhancegold and silver recovery is one of the most promising applications. Bioleaching of heavy metals from printed circuit board pcb by. These bacteria need to be cultivated and adapted to achieve maximal results. Ewaste is one of the important sources of heavy metal pollution which contains a wide range of metals including precious metals like gold and. Biomining is the process of using microorganisms microbes to extract metals of economic interest from rock ores or mine waste. Thiobacillus ferroxidans n11 isolated from hyper saline soils of kolhapur district of maharashtra, india on 9 k medium. Objectives after the end of the presentation well know biohydrometallurgy and its applications bioleaching microorganisms involved in bioleaching bioleaching process factors and parameters influencing bioleaching advantages and disadvantages of bioleaching bioleaching of some metals gold. By 1990 mass field pilots had begun on sulfur containing ore, investigating the effectiveness, as well as the economics involved in bioleaching of gold. Bioleaching is the extraction of metals from their ores through the use of living organisms. Microbial oxidation of gold ores and gold bioleaching fems. A novel bio leaching process to recover valuable metals from.
Pdf bioleaching is a biochemical mining technique in which specific biological organism is used for the removal of a specific metal from. Pdf nowadays bioleaching occupies an increasingly important place. Tank bioleaching of concentrates a niche technology. Therefore, a method for leaching or dissolving gold from ores or precious. Bioleaching of chalcopyrite university of birmingham. Bioleaching of nonsulfidic ores by layering of waste sulfides and elemental sulfur, colonized by acidithiobacillus spp.