Heap bioleaching of a complex sulfide ore: Part II. Effect of temperature on base metal extraction and bacterial compositions

A novel experimental system for the study of microbial ecology and mineral leaching within a simulated agglomerate-scale heap bioleaching system

“…The results of the attachment studies [17][18][19][20] presented in Table 1 may be used to inform and compare the initial microbial retention on low-grade ore, however, these studies do not provide microbial abundance or leaching data. The larger scale column work on low-grade ore [24][25][26]29] presents microbial abundance and diversity data at the termination of the experiments. Nevertheless, these results support the findings of this study where the ore-associated microbial population was significantly larger than that in the bulk flowing solution.…”

“…Numerous studies have investigated the abundance and diversity of microorganisms within the whole ore heap bioleaching system; specifically, the characterisation of microbial colonisation associated with the mineral has recently been studied using agglomerated crushed low-grade ore [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. In the study by Tupikina et al [23], multiple columns were each loaded with ca.…”

The bacterial community structure during bioleaching of a low-grade nickel sulphide ore in stirred-tank reactors at different combinations of temperature and pH

“…All sequences, except BL-12 and BL-16 are closely related (N97% identity) to sequences of previously-sequenced bacteria. All sequences, except BL-1, -10, and -14 are related to sequences of microorganisms that have previously been detected in bioleaching environments, belonging to the genera Acidithiobacillus (Halinen et al, 2009;Xingyu et al, 2009Xingyu et al, , 2010, Leptospirillum (Coram and Rawlings, 2002;Halinen et al, 2009;Xingyu et al, 2009Xingyu et al, , 2010 Xingyu et al, 2009Xingyu et al, , 2010, Acidiphilium (Coram-Uliana et al, 2006), Ferrimicrobium (Halinen et al, 2009), and Acidimicrobium (Cleaver et al, 2007). Two sequences were detected that are not closely related to existing GenBank sequences, and may possibly be from novel species: sequence BL-12, which is most closely related (93% identity) to the gene from an uncultured Acidithiobacillus sp.…”

“…sulphur-and ironoxidizers) and reveal less information on the total bacterial community structure. These studies include bench-scale stirred-tank bioleaching experiments (Xingyu et al, 2009(Xingyu et al, , 2010, commercial stirred-tank bioleaching operations (Coram and Rawlings, 2002), column bioleaching experiments (Coram-Uliana et al, 2006;Halinen et al, 2009), and heap bioleaching operations (Coram-Uliana et al, 2006;Demergasso et al, 2005;Qin et al, 2009). …”

Review of Biohydrometallurgical Metals Extraction from Polymetallic Mineral Resources

“…In column leaching studies, a microbial culture enriched from mine water was active over a wide temperature range in bench scale columns, different microbial populations evolved at different temperatures, and pH 2 was optimal for nickel, zinc and cobalt extractions [296,297], but copper extraction was minimal in the time frame of the experiment. The benefit of supplementing bioleaching tests inoculated with an iron(II)-and sulfur-oxidising mixed culture with additional ferrous ions was tested and the altered mineralogy that evolved during bioleaching investigated [298][299][300].…”