The effect of ferrous iron ion concentration on activity of iron-oxidizing microorganisms

Abstract

Effect of ferrous iron concentration on activity of acidophilic iron-oxidizing microorganisms was studied. It was shown that high concentration of iron ions inhibited all studied strains, but the most resistant ones were almost completely oxidized up to 500 mM of ferrous iron in the medium. The results obtained are important for the development of biohydrometallurgical technologies based on high temperature ferric leaching since they allow to evaluate the resistance of ironoxidizing microorganisms belonging to different groups to Fe 2+ ions.