Silicate minerals are present in association with metal sulfides in ores and their dissolution occurs when the sulfide minerals are bioleached in heaps for metal recovery. It has previously been suggested that silicate mineral dissolution can affect mineral bioleaching by acid consumption, release of trace elements, and increasing the viscosity of the leach solution. In this study, the effect of silicates present in three separate samples in conjunction with chalcopyrite and a complex multi-metal sulfide ore on heap bioleaching was evaluated in column bioreactors. Fe(2+) oxidation was inhibited in columns containing chalcopyrite samples A and C that leached 1.79 and 1.11 mM fluoride, respectively but not in sample B that contained 0.14 mM fluoride. Microbial Fe(2+) oxidation inhibition experiments containing elevated fluoride concentrations and measurements of fluoride release from the chalcopyrite ores supported that inhibition of Fe(2+) oxidation during column leaching of two of the chalcopyrite ores was due to fluoride toxicity. Column bioleaching of the complex sulfide ore was carried out at various temperatures (7-50 degrees C) and pH values (1.5-3.0). Column leaching at pH 1.5 and 2.0 resulted in increased acid consumption rates and silicate dissolution such that it became difficult to filter the leach solutions and for the leach liquor to percolate through the column. However, column temperature (at pH 2.5) only had a minor effect on the acid consumption and silicate dissolution rates. This study demonstrates the potential negative impact of silicate mineral dissolution on heap bioleaching by microbial inhibition and liquid flow.

An enrichment culture from a boreal sulfide mine environment containing a low-grade polymetallic ore was tested in column bioreactors for simulation of low temperature heap leaching. PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and 16S rRNA gene sequencing revealed the enrichment culture contained an Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans strain with high 16S rRNA gene similarity to the psychrotolerant strain SS3 and a mesophilic Leptospirillum ferrooxidans strain. As the mixed culture contained a strain that was within a clade with SS3, we used the SS3 pure culture to compare leaching rates with the At. ferrooxidans type strain in stirred tank reactors for mineral sulfide dissolution at various temperatures. The psychrotolerant strain SS3 catalyzed pyrite, pyrite/arsenopyrite, and chalcopyrite concentrate leaching. The rates were lower at 5 degrees C than at 30 degrees C, despite that all the available iron was in the oxidized form in the presence of At. ferrooxidans SS3. This suggests that although efficient At. ferrooxidans SS3 mediated biological oxidation of ferrous iron occurred, chemical oxidation of the sulfide minerals by ferric iron was rate limiting. In the column reactors, the leaching rates were much less affected by low temperatures than in the stirred tank reactors. A factor for the relatively high rates of mineral oxidation at 7 degrees C is that ferric iron remained in the soluble phase whereas, at 21 degrees C the ferric iron precipitated. Temperature gradient analysis of ferrous iron oxidation by this enrichment culture demonstrated two temperature optima for ferrous iron oxidation and that the mixed culture was capable of ferrous iron oxidation at 5 degrees C.

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