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Bacterial Bioleaching Of Sulfide Mineral Ores By Mixotrophic Bacterial Consortia

1. Introduction
Bioleaching is regarded as the extraction of metals from their ores using microorganisms. It is one of the technologies in biomining. Microbial technology today offers an economic alternative for the mining industry, by the time highgrade mineral resources are being depleted. The problem occured in this industry is that the recovery of metals from low and lean grade ores using conventional techniques is very expensive due to high energy and capital inputs required. Another major problem is environmental costs due to the high level of pollution from these technologies. Environmental standards continue to stiffen, particularly regarding toxic wastes, so costs for ensuring environmental protection will continue to rise. Bioleaching is considered as one of the most promising and certainly the most revolutionary solution to these problems, compared to pyrometallurgy or chemical metallurgy. It has emerged as a simpler, safer, and less expensive process than the other alternatives for most limestone, granitic, or other host rocks that have secondary replacement of pyritic minerals containing precious metals values [Devasia and Natarajan, 2004]. In the last decade, bioleaching has shown itself to require less capital, reduced operating cost, and less skilled operating and maintenance personnel than the traditional pressure-oxidation or roasting techniques. It holds the promise of dramatically reducing the capital costs. It also offers the opportunity to reduce environmental pollution. Biological processes are carried out under mild conditions, usually without addition of toxic chemicals. The products of biological processes end up in aqueous solution which is more amenable to containment and treatment than gaseous waste. There are several specific needs for advancing the commercialization of biomining. These needs can be met by research in applied microbiology. This preliminary study involved the isolation of bacteria for bioleaching process, especially novel bacteria to achieve greater recoveries in bioleaching process. Therefore, this study concentrated primarily on the use of mixed cultures of iron-oxidizing bacteria for extracting metals from sulfide mineral ores by using stirred tank leaching simulation in bioleaching mechanism.

2. Materials and Methods


2.1 Ore Materials
Mineral sulfide ores were sampled from Cipatujah, Tasikmalaya, West Java Province. All samples collected were first enriched at 25 oC using 9K medium modified with Na2S203 and elemental sulphur [Silverman and Lundgren, 1959]. Rock samples were ground to powder using a pestle and suspended in 100 ml sterilized, distilled water. Aliquots of the samples were enriched to iron-oxidizing broth above.

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