Bioleaching vs. Chloride Leaching: Real Advantages and Drawbacks for Primary Sulfides

Roberto A. Bobadilla-Fazzini; Veronica Gautier; Hector Jordan; Pilar Parada

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.1130.423

Paper Titles

Fluoride Toxicity in Bioleaching of Fluorapatite
p.406

Roles of Oligotrophic Acidophiles (Alicyclobacillus) in Chalcopyrite Bioleaching System: Shake Flask Evaluation
p.410

Bioleaching of Aluminum Slags with Thermophilic Bacteria
p.414

Bioleaching of Copper Sulphide Ore by a Microbial Consortium Isolated from Acid Mine Drainage: Influence of [Fe²⁺]
p.418

Bioleaching vs. Chloride Leaching: Real Advantages and Drawbacks for Primary Sulfides
p.423

The Microbial Ecology of Moderately Thermophilic Mineral Leaching Reactors: The Effect of Solids Loading and Organic Carbon Supplementation on Reactor Performance
p.427

Different Leaching Efficiency and Microbial Community Structure Variation in Chalcopyrite Bioleaching Process Based on Different Initial Microbe Proportions
p.431

Enhance Column Bioleaching of Uranium Embedded in Brannerite by a Mesophilic Acidophilic Bacteria
p.436

Biooxidation of Carbonaceous Refractory Gold Ores by an Iron-Sulfur-Oxidizing Mixotrophic Bacterium at Neutral pH
p.440

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Bioleaching vs. Chloride Leaching: Real Advantages and Drawbacks for Primary Sulfides

Abstract:

Currently the vast majority of the world’s copper is obtained through sulfide mineral processing. Among the copper sulfides, chalcopyrite is the most economically relevant due to its abundance. Therefore, several technologies have been developed in order to achieve an efficient copper extraction from copper sulfides. Among these developments, the hydrometallurgical options of bioleaching as well as chemical chloride leaching are prevailing for secondary copper sulfides due to their good results at lab, pilot and industrial scale. Examples such as the Bacterial Thin-Layer technology developed by Minera Pudahuel in the ́80s (CL Patent 32025), as well as the Cuprochlor® process developed by Minera Michilla (CL Patent 45163), coming to the more recent “Heap leaching method” (US Patent WO2014030048A1) and the mixed version of the “Chloride method for bioleaching” patented by BHP Billiton (US Patent WO2012001501A1), are some examples that are currently being extended to the efficient copper extraction from chalcopyrite. In this work, we have compared at lab-scale BioSigma’s bioleaching technology and the industrial state-of-art chloride leaching for a mainly chalcopyritic copper sulfide ore. The metallurgical and microbial results, and the economical evaluation and comparative analysis clearly show that bioleaching presents several advantages compared to chloride leaching, being the biotechnological option more cost-effective and therefore industrially applicable.