Abstract
Bio-hydrometallurgy technology was applied for the extraction of copper from the raw ores of Chambishi Mine in Zambia. A copper extraction of 93.29% was obtained for small scale column bioleaching within 63 days, while a copper extraction of 89.05% was achieved for large scale column bioleaching in 90 days, thus confirming the amenability of the raw ores for effective extraction via bioleaching. The bacteria were cultured in a 6-stage enlarge cultivation. The bacterial cultures with cell concentration of more than 1×108 cells/mL were added into a spray pond of sulfuric acid to be applied in the dump leaching, and a copper extraction of about 50% was achieved within 2 months. The production report revealed that the copper extraction increased by approximate 20%, and the acid consumption was reduced to around 35% as a consequence of adding the bacteria. The industrial demonstration of the bio-hydrometallurgy technique is now well established in Zambia, and further applications of bio-hydrometallurgy in both Zambia and Congo are currently in progress.
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© 2015 TMS (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society)
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Wang, J., Zhao, H., Qin, W., Liu, X., Qiu, G. (2015). Industrial Practice of Biohydrometallurgy in Zambia. In: Neelameggham, N.R., Alam, S., Oosterhof, H., Jha, A., Dreisinger, D., Wang, S. (eds) Rare Metal Technology 2015. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48188-3_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48188-3_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
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