ISSN:
1662-8985
Source:
Scientific.Net: Materials Science & Technology / Trans Tech Publications Archiv 1984-2008
Topics:
Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Production Engineering, Mining and Metallurgy, Traffic Engineering, Precision Mechanics
Notes:
In heap bioleaching the dissolution of gangue minerals from igneous ore materials canlead to the build-up of considerable concentrations of Mg and Al sulphates in the recycled leachsolution. This may interfere with microbial ferrous iron oxidation, which drives the oxidation of thetarget minerals. The kinetics of the oxidation process have been well studied for Leptospirillum andAcidithiobacillus species in tank systems. Although not directly comparable, kinetic parametersderived for tank systems do apply also for heap bioleach conditions. In the present study the effectof solution concentrations of Mg and Al as sulphate at individual concentrations of 0 to 10 g/L andcombined concentrations 0 to 16 g/L each has been investigated in continuous culture usingLeptospirillum ferriphilum. Increasing the concentrations of the salts increasingly depresses the rateof ferrous iron oxidation and also shifts the viable range more and more into the low potentialregion. Al significantly reduces the amount of carbon maintained in the reactor (assumed to becommensurate with biomass), whereas Mg actually enhances it at low concentrations. In both cases,however, the rate is always depressed. The results indicate that heap cultures are likely to performsub-optimally in those operations where build-up of dissolved gangue minerals is not controlled
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://www.tib-hannover.de/fulltexts/2011/0528/01/39/transtech_doi~10.4028%252Fwww.scientific.net%252FAMR.20-21.156.pdf
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