Bioremediation of Mining Waste and Other Copper-containing Effluents by Biosorption

Abstract

For many countries worldwide, mining is considered a structural pillar of their economies. However, due to its intensive nature, mining not only entails prosperity but also generates large quantity of solid and liquid wastes, such as overburden, rock wastes, slags, and tailings. Inadequate management of the mining wastes results in water bodies and soil contamination, impacting the ecosystems and health. Mining wastes contain heavy metals that affect physiological functions at low concentrations, may cause cancers, chronic respiratory problems, and even death. As part of the strategies for treating mining wastes, biotechnology offers biochemical reactions that can transform and immobilize heavy metals to prevent their spread or reduce their toxicity, known as bioremediation. Bioremediation employs different types of (micro)organisms such as bacteria, fungi, algae, and higher plants. One of the most important mechanisms that bioremediation uses for metal immobilization is biosorption, which retains heavy metals on the cell walls of biomasses through the physicochemical interaction between metallic cations and chemical groups. In this chapter, a comprehensive revision is performed in two scenes: first, the copper mining industry profile, particularly of Chile, the world-leading producer, its importance, and polluting effects by liquid and solid wastes, and the second, the bioremediation of mining and industrial wastewater by biosorption is discussed under an academic approach, presenting the recent contribution about handling real solutions for copper biosorption.