Bioleaching of Tailings Resulting from Benefication of Polymetallic Ores for Recovery of Valuable Metals

Abstract

Concentrated tailings samples resulting from the benefication of polymetallic ores (Armenia) were exposed to bioleaching in order to recover non-ferrous and precious metals. Bioleaching of concentrated tailings samples was performed by the natural microbial consortium of drainage water. It was shown that the extent of extraction of metals from two samples of concentrated tailings by the natural microbial consortium reached 55, 56% and 63, 73% for copper and zinc, respectively. However, the application of the natural microbial consortium together with an iron- oxidizing Acidithiobacillus sp.13Zn resulted in an increase of extraction of metals from concentrated tailings to 70 - 93% for Cu and 75 - 90% for Zn. Thus, to increase the recovery of non-ferrous and precious metals, the use of a natural microbial consortium of drainage water combined with an iron- and sulfur- oxidizing Acidithiobacillus sp.13Znis proposed.