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Bioleaching for the recovery of cobalt from cobalt-bearing pyrite (KCC Project, Uganda).
© BRGM - Dominique Morin
Your issues and needs
Bioleaching-also called biomining-is the extraction of metals using microorganisms. In the last decades it has garnered growing interest from both the academic community and the mining industry, who increasingly consider biomining to be an ecologically acceptable and economically sound alternative to conventional processes such as pyrometallurgy or conventional hydrometallurgy.
Compared to these technologies, bioleaching processes have relatively low capital costs. An additional advantage is their flexibility, offering the possibility for small-scale installations, as well as selective extraction of base and precious metals of interest.
Bioleaching is also well suited to the treatment of metallic resources with complex composition and/or declining metal content (low-grade ores). Bioleaching is thus envisaged as a viable option to treat materials that in the past would have been considered as waste and to exploit primary deposits that were previously not economically profitable.
Bioleaching tests at BRGM's experimental pilot plant. Multi-scale process development (Orléans).
© BRGM
Our added value
For more than 30 years, BRGM has been involved in the bioleaching field and offers process solutions based on a multi-disciplinary team and a multi-scale approach. Its expertise covers a wide spectrum of activities and services from bioprospecting to process development, from laboratory to pilot experiments and in-situ demonstration.
BRGM offers innovative tools and approaches to support partners and clients in the development of bioleaching processes, from early preliminary-feasibility tests up to pilot scale demonstrations:
- Bioprospecting, selection and adaptation of microbial consortia, microbe collection and conservation.
- Bioleaching preliminary-feasibility and feasibility tests.
- Solid (ore, concentrate, waste, etc.) sampling and preparation (crushing, grinding, physical separation, heat treatment, etc.) from 1 kg up to 10 tonnes.
- Multi-scale process development (bioreactors from 1 L. to 2 m3).
- Process optimization and demonstration.
- Bioreactor design.
- Numerical modelling (bioreactor hydrodynamics, heat and mass balances, process flowsheet, process integration and upscaling).
- Environmental assessment, LCA.
- A multidisciplinary team involving experts in various fields: (bio)hydrometallurgy, process engineering, microbiology, molecular biology, mineral processing, chemistry, LCA.
Bioleaching tests at BRGM's experimental pilot plant. Multi-scale process development (Orléans).
© BRGM
Means of analysis and platforms
- PLAT’INN: 2 000 m² experimental facility containing multi-scale equipment (catalogue available on request) for sampling, mineral processing, (bio)-hydrometallurgy, residues management.
- Analytical tools: chemical analysis of major and trace elements, mineralogy (SEM, XRD, etc.), DNA analysis (TRFLP, PCR, qPCR, DGGE).
- Numerical tools: CFD, USIMPAC, HSC.
Preparation of 5 tonnes of mining waste from the copper industry for bioleaching recovery tests.
© BRGM – Anne-Gwenaëlle Guézennec
References
NEMO: Near-zero-waste recycling of low-grade sulphidic mining waste for critical-metal, mineral and construction raw-material production in a circular economy. Project R&I Horizon 2020
CROCODILE: First of a kind commercial Compact system for the efficient Recovery Of CObalt Designed with novel Integrated LEading technologies. Project R&I Horizon 2020
CEReS: Co-processing of Coal Mine and Electronic Wastes. Project Research Fund for Coal and Steel
Patents
Guezennec, A.-G., Ibarra, D., Jaillet, M., Menard, Y., Morin, D., Melsio, A., Savreux, F., D’Hugues, P., 2017. Bioleaching method and facility. US20170175223A1.
Bioleaching tests at BRGM's experimental pilot plant. Multi-scale process development (Orléans).
© BRGM
Publications
Anaya-Garzon, J., Hubau, A., Joulian, C., Guezennec, A.-G., 2021. Bioleaching of E-Waste: Infl uence of Printed Circuit Boards on the Activity of Acidophilic Iron-Oxidizing Bacteria. Frontiers in Microbiology 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.669738
Bryan, C.G., Williamson, B.J., Całus-Moszko, J., van Haute, Q., Guezennec, A.-G., Gaydardzhiev, S., Wavrer, P., Frączek, R., 2020. CEReS – co-processing of coal mine & electronic wastes: Novel resources for a sustainable future. Hydrometallurgy 197, 105444. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hydromet.2020.105444
Chéron, J., Loubière, C., Delaunay, S., Guezennec, A.-G., Olmos, E., 2020. CFD numerical simulation of particle suspension and hydromechanical stress in various designs of multi-stage bioleaching reactors. Hydrometallurgy 197, 105490. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. hydromet.2020.105490
Copper Hydrometallurgy: Principles and Practice (Electronic Handbook) [WWW Document], n.d. . CIM Store. URL https://store.cim.org/copper-hydrometallurgyprinciples-and-practice-electronic-handbook (accessed 6.9.20).
Hubau, A., Guezennec, A.-G., Joulian, C., Falagán, C., Dew, D., Hudson-Edwards, K.A., 2020a. Bioleaching to reprocess sulfi dic polymetallic primary mining residues: Determination of metal leaching mechanisms. Hydrometallurgy 197, 105484. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hydromet.2020.105484
Hubau, A., Minier, M., Chagnes, A., Joulian, C., Silvente, C., Guezennec, A.-G., 2020b. Recovery of metals in a double-stage continuous bioreactor for acidic bioleaching of printed circuit boards (PCBs). Separation and Purifi cation Technology 238, 116481. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2019.116481
Joulian, C., Fonti, V., Chapron, S., Bryan, C.G., Guezennec, A.-G., 2020. Bioleaching of pyritic coal wastes: bioprospecting and effi ciency of selected consortia. Research in Microbiology, Special Issue on International Biohydrometallurgy Symposium (IBS) 2019 171, 260–270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resmic.2020.08.002
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References
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