Bacterial consortium for copper extraction from sulphide ore consisting mainly of chalcopyrite

Abstract

The mining industry is looking forward for bacterial consortia for economic extraction of copper from low-grade ores. The main objective was to determine an optimal bacterial consortium from several bacterial strains to obtain copper from the leach of chalcopyrite. The major native bacterial species involved in the bioleaching of sulphide ore (Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans, Leptospirillum ferrooxidans and Leptospirillum ferriphilum) were isolated and the assays were performed with individual bacteria and in combination with At. thiooxidans. In conclusion, it was found that the consortium integrated by At. ferrooxidans and At. thiooxidans removed 70% of copper in 35 days from the selected ore, showing significant differences with the other consortia, which removed only 35% of copper in 35 days. To validate the assays was done an escalation in columns, where the bacterial consortium achieved a higher percentage of copper extraction regarding to control.

Caracterización de consorcios microbianos lixiviantes de sulfuro de cobre aislados de drenajes ácidos de minas altoandinas

“…Actualmente, el uso de consorcios bacterianos autóctonos de yacimientos, drenajes ácidos, pilas de sulfuro o depósitos de minerales ha tomado relevancia debido a su eficiencia como catalizadores de biolixiviación. Estos microorganismos al estar adaptados a un ambiente natural con altas concentraciones de metales responderían eficazmente al aumento progresivo de elementos principales durante los procesos de biolixiviación a gran escala (Watling 2006;Romo et al 2013). Entre los consorcios de bacterias acidófilas más empleados y estudiados, destacan los conformados por Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans y Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans, y también aquellos que incluyen a Leptospirillum ferrooxidans.…”

“…Entre los consorcios de bacterias acidófilas más empleados y estudiados, destacan los conformados por Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans y Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans, y también aquellos que incluyen a Leptospirillum ferrooxidans. Estos consorcios han mostrado resultados favorables para la extracción de cobre a partir de minerales de baja ley (Romo et al 2013;Sajjad et al 2018).…”

Interaction networks for identifying coupled molecular processes in microbial communities

“…Romo et al [ 27 ] described a bioleaching system which (i) exhibits an emergent community effect in terms of mineral leaching efficiency, (ii) is composed of a minimum number of species which (iii) have rich annotation at the gene and protein level. The authors investigated the efficiency of chalcopyrite (CuFeS 2 ) bioleaching in a controlled setting with pure cultures of Gram-negative gamma-proteobacteria Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans and At.…”