Insights into Bacterial Community Structure of a Commercial Copper Bioheapleaching Plant: Growth of Heterotrophic Bacteria in the System

Abstract

The distribution and diversity of bacterial community in Zijinshan commercial non-aeration copper bioheapleaching system operated at pH 0.8 for three years were investigated. The 24 meters high heap was cut off by mechanical digger. On the trapezoidal cross-section of the heap, 9 ore samples were taken from different vertical and horizontal locations and investigated by 16S rRNA gene clone library. Another 3 liquid samples from raffinate solution pond, spray solution pond and pregnant solution pond were also applied to 16S rRNA gene clone library analysis. The retrieved 1166 clone sequences from 12 samples were mainly related to genus Acidithiobacillus (42.36%), genus Leptospirillum (37.73%) and genus Sulfobacillus (6.52%). Relative high amount of heterotrophic bacteria were distributed at the ore surface in the internal part of the heap and in the liquid samples respectively. The retrieved heterotrophic bacterial sequences were mainly related to genus Acidiphilium (accounting 11.11% to 32.00% percent in the liquid samples), genus Acidovorax (accounting 12.37% in A1 sample), genus Pelomonas (accounting 4.17% to 10.31% in several ore samples) and genus Aquabacterium (accounting 10.31% in C2 sample). Bacterial diversity in the heap was increased from the surfcae layer to the interior of the heap. The proportion of genus Leptospirillum horizontally increased from the inner to the outer part while vertically decreased from lower depth (2-3 years leaching time) to higher depth(3-6 month leaching time), and reverse correlation of genus Acidithiobacillus was found in the heap. Our finding indicated that heterotrophic bacteria may play very important roles in the commercial bioheapleaching system, and revealed high distribution of genus Leptospirillum in the outer part of this non-aerated heap.