Manganese biomining: A review (original) (raw)

Potential impact of microbial consortia in biomining and bioleaching of commercial metals

Advancements in Life Sciences, 2017

Biomining is the use of microorganisms for the commercial extraction of lavish metals from ores and mines with least effect on environment. Microbes play vital role in bioleaching procedures in commercial mining. The bacterial cells are used to detoxify/replace waste cyanide, marginal biomass and activated carbon. These methods are preferred over conventional techniques due to energy efficient, low cost, environment friendly and production of useful by-products. At industrial scale, different microbial strains ( Acidophilic, Sulphobacillus, Rhodococcus, Ferrimicrobium & chemolithotrophic ) are deployed to boost the processes of copper and uranium bioleaching. About 20% of the world’s copper is extracted by using this technique. These extraction procedures involve oxidation of insoluble metal sulphides to soluble sulphates. The isolation of thermophilic microbes for mineral biooxidation increase the commercial extraction of minerals at industrial scale. The conventional pyrometallur...

An Overview: Application of Microorganisms in Bio-Mining of Metals (Review Article)

International Journal of Pharmacy and Biological Sciences, 2021

Biomining of copper from ores was started during ancient era without even knowing the role of microorganisms in the process. The ever-increasing demand of metals, declination of natural resources, huge reserves of low-grade metallic ores and generation of massive amount of metallic wastes from mining and beneficiation process has led to the evolution and commercial scale adoption of biomining. The ability of microorganisms to bioamine metals depends on redox reactions, organic or inorganic acid formation and the release of complexing agents. Redox reaction is the key step of biomining process which is based either on direct or indirect bioleaching. The main difference between the two mechanisms is the direct contact between the microorganisms and the reduced minerals. Apart from the economic benefits, biomining also reduces the problem of acid mine drainage (AMD). Biomining is successfully utilized in metal recovery from low grade ores, mine tailings, mine wastes, municipal solid wa...

Bioleaching of manganese from low-grade ores using manganese- reducing microbial cultures

Advances in Water Resources, 1999

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Metagenomic insights into the microbial diversity in manganese-contaminated mine tailings and their role in biogeochemical cycling of manganese

Scientific reports, 2018

To extend the knowledge on the microbial diversity of manganese rich environments, we performed a clone library based study using metagenomic approach. Pyrosequencing based analysis of 16S rRNA genes were carried out on an Illumina platform to gain insights into the bacterial community inhabiting in a manganese mining site and the taxonomic profiles were correlated with the inherent capacities of these strains to solubilise manganese. The application of shot gun sequencing in this study yielded results which revealed the highest prevalence of Proteobacteria (42.47%), followed by Actinobacteria (23.99%) in the area of study. Cluster of orthologous group (COG) functional category has 85,066 predicted functions. Out of which 11% are involved in metabolism of amino acid, 9% are involved in production and conversion of energy while Keto Encyclopedia of Gene and Genomes (KEGG) functional category has 107,388 predicted functions, out of which 55% are involved in cellular metabolism, 15% ar...

Biomining in reverse gear: Using bacteria to extract metals from oxidised ores

Minerals Engineering, 2015

Biomining, as traditionally practised, uses aerobic, acidophilic microorganisms to accelerate the oxidative dissolution of sulfide minerals present in ores and concentrates, thereby either causing target metals to be solubilised (e.g. copper) or made accessible to chemical extraction (e.g. gold). Many acidophiles are also able to catalyse the dissimilatory reduction of ferric iron in anoxic or oxygen-depleted environments, and can accelerate the reductive dissolution of ferric iron minerals, such as goethite, under such conditions. Recent work has demonstrated how this approach can be used to extract metals (nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese) from oxidised ores, such as laterites deposits, at low ($30°C) temperatures. Reductive mineral dissolution has been trialled successfully with a variety of ores, pointing to a generic application of this approach.

Biomining-biotechnologies for extracting and recovering metals from ores and waste materials

Current opinion in biotechnology, 2014

The abilities of acidophilic chemolithotrophic bacteria and archaea to accelerate the oxidative dissolution of sulfide minerals have been harnessed in the development and application of a biotechnology for extracting metals from sulfidic ores and concentrates. Biomining is currently used primarily to leach copper sulfides and as an oxidative pretreatment for refractory gold ores, though it is also used to recover other base metals, such as cobalt, nickel and zinc. Recent developments have included using acidophiles to process electronic wastes, to extract metals from oxidized ores, and to selectively recover metals from process waters and waste streams. This review describes the microorganisms and mechanisms involved in commercial biomining operations, how the technology has developed over the past 50 years, and discusses the challenges and opportunities for mineral biotechnologies in the 21st century.

Microbiological Beneficiation of Low Grade Manganese Ores: A Review

Manganese is a transition element like iron. However, it exists in different valencies like 2, 3, 4 and 7. Of these, Mn 2+ is highly water soluble, but is rarely found in natural conditions. Mn 4+ is the least water soluble and under different pH and redox conditions it can slowly become colloidal in natural water. It exists naturally as a very common mineral called pyrolusite and is used for pyrometallurgical processes in ferro‐alloys industries. However, in order to have such beneficial application, the manganese content should be more than 80% in the ore. Anything less than this is treated as low grade ore and is usually dumped on land with cultivable soil, in order to reach deeper for the high grade ores. This is highly ecotoxic to the environment and over a period of time can be very damaging to agriculture and the biodiversity which includes human health as it finds its way to ground water table like wells and ponds. As time went by and high grade ore started depleting, miners started going deeper in the ground, with the result of dumping lower grade ores over surface soils. In this study, such low grade ores were examined and found to contain a mixture of Mn 3+ and Mn 4+ oxides. When such ores were subjected to microbial oxidation, it was found that under certain conditions of growth, Arthrobacter sp could not only convert the Mn 3+ to Mn 4+ and 67% of the Mn 4+ oxides had the ramsdellite γ‐ crystalline structure, which could be used as a depolarizer in the dry cell batteries. This was considered as a very important biotechnological discovery which not only could save the biodiverse environment but also gave a value added product for commercial exploitation.

The microbiology of biomining: development and optimization of mineral-oxidizing microbial consortia

Microbiology (Reading, England), 2007

Biomining, the use of micro-organisms to recover precious and base metals from mineral ores and concentrates, has developed into a successful and expanding area of biotechnology. While careful considerations are made in the design and engineering of biomining operations, microbiological aspects have been subjected to far less scrutiny and control. Biomining processes employ microbial consortia that are dominated by acidophilic, autotrophic iron- or sulfur-oxidizing prokaryotes. Mineral biooxidation takes place in highly aerated, continuous-flow, stirred-tank reactors or in irrigated dump or heap reactors, both of which provide an open, non-sterile environment. Continuous-flow, stirred tanks are characterized by homogeneous and constant growth conditions where the selection is for rapid growth, and consequently tank consortia tend to be dominated by two or three species of micro-organisms. In contrast, heap reactors provide highly heterogeneous growth environments that change with th...

Biomineral Processing: A Valid Eco-Friendly Alternative for Metal Extraction

Research and Reviews: Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology, 2014

Over the past few years, the applications of certain microorganisms have gained importance in the field of applied environmental microbiology. Amongst them, biomineral processing is such field that deals with metal mining from ores, concentrates, industrial wastes, overburdens etc. under the impact of microorganisms and/or their metabolites. The most successful advancement of mineral biotechnology so far is on copper, uranium, nickel-cobalt and gold bearing ores. Treatment of mineral industry effluents by microorganisms, with incidental recovery of some metal values constitutes an equally important area of biomineral processing. The most common method followed for leaching or extraction of metal values is through shake flask (a lab scale method) followed by bioreactors or percolation columns (a bench scale method) and finally to heap leaching (a pilot scale method). Bio-leaching of mono-and multiple-sulphides is now coming to be known as an established commercial process. The present review discusses the microorganisms involved in biomineral processing, mechanism of metal extraction, molecular methodologies adopted for microbial identification with our experience on application of microorganism.

A comparative study for Bioleaching of various manganese ores

A native microorganism, Penicillium citrinum was isolated from the top soil of a manganese mine. Based on its efficiency for manganese solubilisation, it was utilized for the leaching of a low-grade manganese ore. The effects of various parameters such as pulp density, particle size, sucrose concentration, inoculum size and bioleaching duration on manganese ore were studied. The optimised conditions for maximum solubilization of the manganese ore (64.58% Mn) were : a particle size of 45µm; a pulp density of 2% (w/v); a sucrose concentration of 10% (w/v); an inoculum dosage of 10% (v/v); and a 30 day duration.