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HMEMTA3 - Lecture 8

Bioleaching is a mining process that utilizes microorganisms to extract valuable metals from low-grade ores, offering a more economical and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional extraction methods. While it can achieve high extraction yields and minimize landscape damage, the process is slower and may produce toxic chemicals that require careful planning to avoid environmental harm. Commonly extracted metals include gold, silver, uranium, nickel, copper, and cobalt, with copper being the most frequently targeted through various bioleaching techniques.

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16 views7 pages

HMEMTA3 - Lecture 8

Bioleaching is a mining process that utilizes microorganisms to extract valuable metals from low-grade ores, offering a more economical and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional extraction methods. While it can achieve high extraction yields and minimize landscape damage, the process is slower and may produce toxic chemicals that require careful planning to avoid environmental harm. Commonly extracted metals include gold, silver, uranium, nickel, copper, and cobalt, with copper being the most frequently targeted through various bioleaching techniques.

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HYDROMETALLURGY (HMEMTA3)

LECTURE 8

APRIL 2025
1
Bioleaching
• 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.
• Bioleaching techniques are often more effective than traditional mining applications and can even be used
to clean mine tailings sites.
• Traditional extractions involve many expensive steps such as roasting and smelting, which require
sufficient concentrations of elements in ores and are environmentally unfriendly.
• Low concentrations are not a problem for bacteria because they simply ignore the waste which surrounds
the metals, attaining extraction yields of over 90% in some cases.
Economical: bioleaching is generally simpler and therefore cheaper to operate and maintain than traditional
processes, since fewer specialists are needed to operate complex chemical plants.

2
Bioleaching
Environmental: The process is more environmentally friendly than traditional extraction methods.
• For the company this can translate into profit, since the necessary limiting of sulfur dioxide emissions during
smelting is expensive.
• Less landscape damage occurs, since the bacteria involved grow naturally, and the mine and surrounding area
can be left relatively untouched. As the bacteria breed in the conditions of the mine, they are easily cultivated
and recycled.
Economical: the bacterial leaching process is very slow compared to smelting. This brings in less profit as well as
introducing a significant delay in cash flow for new plants.
Environmental: Toxic chemicals are sometimes produced in the process. Sulfuric acid and H+ ions which have
been formed can leak into the ground and surface water turning it acidic, causing environmental damage.
• Heavy ions such as iron, zinc, and arsenic leak during acid mine drainage. When the pH of this solution rises, as
a result of dilution by fresh water, these ions precipitate, forming "Yellow Boy" pollution. For these reasons, a
setup of bioleaching must be carefully planned, since the process can lead to a biosafety failure.

3
Bioleaching
• Metals recovered extracted from bioleaching include:
➢ Gold (refractory gold ores)
➢ Silver
➢ Uranium
➢ Nickel
➢ Copper (sulphide ores)
➢ Cobalt zinc
• There are many types of bioleaching processes, and copper is the most common.
• A few of the most popular types of bioleaching extract metals from ore by retrieving sulfide minerals
using bacteria that receive energy from non-carbon compounds.

4
Bioleaching
• How does bioleaching works?

• Biochemical reactions involve enzymes together with nutrients.

• The nutrient species is first adsorbed at a cell site.

• At that site there is access to enzymes, proteins, and solution that facilitate transport or conversion.

• The nutrient either enters the bacterium or remains adsorbed for processing.

• The bacteria convert nutrients for either metabolism or cell components.

• In aqueous metal processing, bacteria often oxidize dissolved species to obtain energy.

• Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans oxidize ferrous ions to ferric ions. They accomplish this by coupling

the ferrous–ferric half-cell reaction with water production. 4H+ + O2 + 4e− = 2H2O

5
Bioleaching

• The reaction of oxygen and hydrogen ions in respiring (breathing) organisms facilitates metabolism in
these organisms.
• Metabolic energy is obtained through a series of reactions that are coupled to the water formation
reaction
• Ferrous oxidizing bacteria have other needs as well. Bacteria (and other organisms) need other
nutrients (i.e., K, Mg, PO43−, NH3, CO2, and O2) in order to survive.
• Assuming that all of the basic needs are met, the oxidation rate is associated with ferrous ions.
• The ferrous biooxidation rate can be determined using traditional Michaelis–Menten or Monod
kinetics.

6
Bioleaching

• In this equation, Ccells is the cell concentration. μmax is the maximum specific growth rate. Yc is the cell

yield coefficient or cell mass produced per substrate mass consumed. Km is the Michaelis constant.

• Michaelis–Menten kinetics is based on the assumption of reaction limiting site availability.

• Example values for these variables in stirred reactors with sulfide mineral concentrates are Ccells = 3 g/l,

μmax = 0.03 h−1, Yc = 0.07, Km = 0.025 g/l, and C(Fe2+) = 0.03 g/l, based on data in the research literature.

• The rate of ferrous oxidation is often made using a redox or oxidation–reduction potential electrode.

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