Development of a culture collection and data bank for biometallurgical processes in india

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Biometallurgical processing of minerals is a fast-developing science and is of considerable importance especially to nations like India where rapid industrialization has increased the domestic demand for metallic raw material which has to be satisfied by heavy imports. One of the ways of leading the country to self-sufficiency is to attempt to produce the metals from indigenously available low-grade/waste ores or beneficiate their quality using an appropriate technology like biometallurgy. We have developed a culture collection and data bank in respect of this technology in India for microbial leaching of copper and bioconversion of manganese. In this programme, 207 potentially-useful micro-organisms such as iron-, sulphur-and manganese-oxidizing bacteria were isolated from 60 copper and manganese mines in the country, and they were used for leaching copper and converting manganese to a better variety. These two processes were scaled-up to the 300-kg level and the isolated microorganisms were stored in an active, ready-to-use form by devising suitable preservation methods. Such a compilation of information on ores and cultures, with a centralized facility for supply of useful cultures, was referred as a ‘culture collection and data bank’. Various Indian mining industries have shown interest in trying these processes on a large scale at their mines, using the cultures and the data available from us.