Abstract
The commercial application of copper bioleaching, an environmentally-friendly approach for low-grade and secondary mineral resources recycling, has increased worldwide since the 2000s. As the world’s second-largest economic entity and the largest developing country, China has the largest demand for metal resources, significantly advancing the theory and industrial technology of copper bioleaching. This paper reviews the exploration and application of copper bioleaching in China. Two typical bioleaching applications and technological processes, bioheap leaching at the Zijinshan Copper Mine and bioheap leaching at the Dexing Copper Mine, are introduced. The considerable research completed by researchers is summarized, especially focusing on the isolation and identification of leaching bacteria, the bioleaching mechanism and interface reactions, multistage percolation behavior, bioleaching system reconstruction, the multiphysics coupled model, and enhanced copper bioleaching from waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs). Based on this investigation in China, key trends and prospects in copper bioleaching—such as efficiency improvement, environmental protection, and improved technology applications—are proposed.
Highlights
Due to its excellent ductility and electric and thermal conductivity, copper has been widely applied in the construction, electricity, transportation, and manufacturing industries [1,2]
Chinese researchers have investigated copper bioleaching in laboratories and industrial applications, in mines such as Dexing Copper Mine and Zijinshan Copper Mine
The successful application of these above-mentioned cases cannot be separated from breakthroughs in key technologies, such as bacteria identification, interface reaction, multistage breakthroughs in key technologies, such as bacteria identification, interface reaction, multistage percolation, a pore structure revolution [103,104,105]
Summary
Due to its excellent ductility and electric and thermal conductivity, copper has been widely applied in the construction, electricity, transportation, and manufacturing industries [1,2]. As an efficient recycling approach used for low-grade minerals, complex polymetallic resource, and solid ore waste [9,10], bioheap leaching and biodump leaching have been broadly applied, having potential given the exhaustion of high-quality copper mines. These approaches have been extensively researched and utilized in China, Chile, Spain, and South Africa [11,12,13,14,15]. Challenges for copper bioleaching identified, advanced technologies and improved methods to overcome these issues are discussed.
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