Bioleaching of a copper sulphide ore by iron-oxidising bacteria

V.E. BOSIO; C. POGLIANI; E. DONATI

Río de Janeiro

Congreso; VI Southern Hemisphere Meeting on Mineral Technology; 2001

Bioleaching is now an established technology for the treatment of refractory gold ores and for the metal recovery from low-grade sulphide ores. Bioleaching of sulpbid; ores consists in the mobilisation of metal constituents through microbial oxidation of the metal sulphide. In the last years, indirect attack through the a mechanism ofbioleaching. Bacterial function consists in the regeneration of the oxidant ferric ion. Thiobacillus ferrooxidans and Leptospirillum ferrooxidans are capable of oxidising iron (II) but at different rate according to the pH and ferrous concentration. The ability of each microorganism to contribute to the bioleaching of a sulphide ore (Bajo La Alumbrera, Catamarca-Argentina) in different conditions is analysed in this paper.