ABSTRACT

Biological destruction of cyanide in mining waters has been

demonstrated effective in the lab and in the field. Applied Biosciences
Corp.s ABMet water treatment technology is used in the mining and
other industries for the removal of various inorganic contaminants
including metals and nitrate. An aerobic ABMet-CN process has
shown great promise in efficiently and effectively removing cyanide
from even very cold waters. Bench and pilot data will be presented.
INTRODUCTION
Biological treatment for inorganics in mining waters has
advanced a great deal in the last several years as researchers, treat-
ment providers, and mining operators have experimented with vari-
ous methods and approaches. Biological removal of metals and
nitrogen is well understood and improvements in passive, active, and
in-situ treatment are making this option more affordable and more
reliable. One important constituent common to mining waters that is
likely treatable with biological methods is cyanide. This paper pres-
ents data from several bench-scale and field pilot tests that demon-
strate that cyanide can indeed be degraded biologically.
Cyanide was first treated biologically at the Homestake Mine in
Lead, South Dakota with a plant that began operation in 1984. That
plant, though successful, uses rotating biological contactors (RBC)
that require a large area, long retention times, high power consump-
tion, and has difficulty removing cyanide when the water temperature
moves below 10 C. Researchers at Applied Biosciences have been
exploring various cyanide removal methods over the last four years
that address these problems specifically.
MICROBIAL CYANIDE DEGRADATION
Microbial degradation of cyanide involves using aerobic bacte-
ria that oxidize the cyanide yielding CO
2
and nitrogen gas. Ammonia
is a typical byproduct. Several types of bacteria have been shown to
degrade cyanide, including Pseudomonas, Alcacaligenes,
Achromobacter, and Flavobacterium. Most mining waters will contain
some indigenous consortium of bacteria capable of degrading
cyanide and cyanide complexes. Applied Biosciences maintains sev-
eral separate microbial mixtures that have been isolated from various
sites and have shown an ability to both tolerate relatively high con-
centrations of cyanide (up to 300 mg/l for some mixtures) and to rap-
idly degrade cyanide in mining waters.
PROCESS OPTIMIZATION
When selecting a cyanide degrading culture for a particular
mine water, Applied Biosciences uses similar screening procedure as
for selecting metals removal cultures. Several different microbial mix-
tures (usually about 10) are each tested for growth in site water with
the most robust cultures being selected for bioreactor testing.
BENCH-SCALE AND FIELD TESTING
After several years of bench-scale work in the 1990s Applied
Biosciences pilot tested in 2000 a cyanide degrading culture at the
Zortman-Landusky Mine in northern Montana. This biotreatment pilot
plant was designed to remove selenium and nitrate as well as
cyanide from leach pad run-off. Biotreatment of selenium and nitrate
is an anaerobic process while cyanide degradation is an aerobic one.
One purpose of the pilot was to test the possibility of degrading
cyanide using the oxygen available in the micro-environment of the
bioreactor. An aerobic cyanide degrading culture was mixed with an
anerobic selenium and nitrate reducing culture and established as a
robust biofilm in a fixed-bed, upflow reactor. The microbes used to
reduce selenium and nitrate were facultative anaerobes that can
function in the presence of any dissolved oxygen that might be pres-
ent in the influent and thus in the first stage of the bioreactor train.
While the pilot test showed successful cyanide removal (with reten-
tion times of 49 hrs., 16 hrs., and 8 hrs. respectively), full-scale imple-
mentation in 2002 of this method showed that in a large-scale sys-
tem, a mixed aerobic-anaerobic culture could not perform as desired.
System optimization for selenium and nitrate removal at full-scale
could not balance with required cyanide degradation.
IDAHO MINE - PILOT
Pilot testing at a mine site in Idaho in early 2003 showed good
results with an aerobic, fixed film reactor to remove cyanide, followed
by a standard Applied Biosciences anaerobic reactor to remove met-
als. Retention times for this test were high (32 hours for 5 gpm, and
16 hours for 10 gpm on days 15 and 16), but it is believed that with
further testing and culture adaptation, retention times as low as 3 to
5 hours can be achieved.
NEVADA MINE BENCH TEST
Bench-testing using an aerobic, fluidized-bed reactor was able
to remove total cyanide from water from a Nevada mine site. Cyanide
SME Annual Meeting
Feb. 23-25, Denver, Colorado
Preprint 04-132
BIOLOGICAL CYANIDE DESTRUCTION IN MINERAL PROCESSING WATERS
T. Maniatis, B. Wahlquist, T. Pickett
Applied Biosciences Corp.
Salt Lake City, UT
1 Copyright 2004 by SME
was complexed with selenium. To prepare the water for selenium
treatment, the sample was run continuously through the aerobic reac-
tor for six days to remove cyanide and then run once through a series
of anaerobic reactors to remove the selenium. The aerobic reactor
removed 95% of the cyanide in the first 24 hours with another 3%
removal over the next 5 days. No nutrient addition was required.
CONCLUSION
While the biological mechanisms of cyanide degradation are
well understood, the actual process engineering required to harness
those mechanisms in a cost-effective manner is still immature.
Applied Biosciences experience with biotreatment for cyanide shows
that fixed-film, fluidized bed reactors hold more promise than fixed-
bed reactors. Continued research and field testing of modified flu-
idized bed reactors should quickly result in a workable and cost-effec-
tive system for the biological degradation of cyanide.
The goal is the development of a high-efficiency aerobic reactor
able to degrade cyanide in short retention times (less than 4 hours)
and requiring a small foot-print, and with minimal or no nutrient addi-
tion. A bank of cyanide resistant microbes will be collected and main-
tained, with site-specific adaptation and optimization taking place for
each project.
REFERENCES
Adams, D. J., Van Komen, J., Pickett, T. Biological Cyanide
Degradation. Presented/Published at the TMS Cyanide Symposium.
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Botz, M. M. Overview of Cyanide Treatment Methods. Mining
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28-30, May 2001.
Whitlock, J., Grondin, L., Wagner, R. Biological Toxicity
Treatment Evaluation of a Gold Mine Effluent.
Mudder, T. Microbial Treatment of Industrial and Hazardous
Wastes. In The Cyanide Monograph, Edited by T.I. Mudder and M.M.
Botz., Mining Journal Books Ltd., London, 2001.
Haghighi-Podeh, M.R., Siyahati-Ardakani, G. Fate and Toxic
Effects of Cyanide on Aerobic Treatment Systems. In Water Science
and Technology Vol 42 Nos. 3-4, pp. 125-130. IWA Publishing 2000.
SME Annual Meeting
Feb. 23-25, Denver, Colorado
2 Copyright 2004 by SME