Recognition of microbial functional communities and assessment of the mineralizing potential (bioleaching) for high-tech critical metals, BioCriticalMetals-Work Package 5

PAULA MORAIS; ANTONIO FIUZA; ALINA BUTU; LILIANA GHERGHE; VERÓNICA SAAVEDRA; MARTA LITTER; ADALGISA SCOTTI; J. CARVALHO; C. DE SÁ; MARIO CUELLO; J.A. FERNÁNDEZ

Encuentro; 13° Encuentro del Centro Internacional de Ciencias de la Tierra ? E-ICES 13; 2018

BioCriticalMetals is a project funded by the European Union (EU) belonging to theERA-MIN network. The working group consortium is composed by public and privateorganizations from Portugal, Romania and Argentina. The general objective of theproject is the recognition of bacterial consortia for recovery of critical raw metalsaccording to EU directives. To reach this objective, six work packages (WP) have beenproposed. In WP5, where Argentine groups are mainly involved, two bacterial consortiawill be tested focused on tungsten (W), one to bioleach the element from wastes of agold mining in the San Luis province, and another one to bioaccumulate the elementfrom leachates obtained in the previous step. The experiments will be carried out at theICES CNEA-FRSR UTN Environmental Laboratory, where two pools will beconditioned for bioleaching (pool 1) and bioaccumulation (pool 2). Pool 1 is filled byfilter stones and mine wastes containing the bacterial consortium for bioleaching, whilepool 2 is filled with stones and the bacterial consortium for bioaccumulation. Liquidleached from pool 1 enters pool 2 with previous pH adjustment. All throughout theexperiments, oxygen, Eº and pH will be continuously measured. After the bioleaching,the soil remaining in pool 1 will be treated through myco-phytoremediation, and liquidwastes from pool 2 remaining after microorganisms extraction will be treated with ironnanoparticles and/or myco-phytoremediation, depending on the concentration of themetal.