ZHOU Hong-bo, MAO Feng, WANG Yu-guang

School of Minerals Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China

Abstract: Natural and man-made acidic environments distribute widely in the biosphere, which provides ecological niche spaces for acidophilic microorganisms whose optimal growing pH is (or below) 3. Acidophilic microorganisms are important geological microorganisms, which have great contributions to biogeochemical cycles, such as S and Fe cycles. Bioleaching, a technique of using acidophilic microorganisms to recover precious or base metals, owns unparalleled advantages, such as simple process, low capital investment, and environment friendly character. The technique is a frontier technology in the field of mineral processing and has been widely employed to extract copper, gold, uranium, etc. Bioleaching has been successfully applied in many industries of developed foreign countries. The technology has also been gradually applied in industrial production in China. However, there are still some problems, such as the low leaching efficiency and the low total recovery. The main aim of this review is to give useful insights into acidophilic microorganisms and bioleaching technology, as well as to review development trends of this field, which will provide inspirations for strengthening fundamental and applied researches.

Keywords: acidophilic microorganism acidic environment bioleaching

*Corresponding Author, E-Mail: zhouhb@csu.edu.cn

Bulletin of Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry Vol. 34, No.2, 2015, page 269-276