Recovery of Copper from Pyritic Copper Ores Using a Biosurfactant-Producing Mixotrophic Bacterium as Bioflotation Reagent

Abstract:

In an attempt to investigate the use of bacteria and their metabolites as bioflotation reagents for environmentally friendly mineral processing, laboratory cell flotation tests were carried out using copper sulfide ores bearing a high content of pyrite, which were mixed with a biosurfactant-producing mixotrophic bacterium as bioflotation reagents. The interaction of bacterial cells and their metabolic products with the sulfide ores resulted in the alteration of the surface chemistry of both ores and bacterial cells as evidenced by FTIR and SEM-EDS observations as well as surface tension and contact angle measurements. The change in the surface properties of the sulfide ores in turn enabled the bacterium to function as flotation bioregeants in the flotation of copper sulfide ores as a function of bacterial cell concentration, conditioning time, flotation time and pH. Overall, the bacterium and its metabolites as bioreagents yielded flotation recoveries which might be attributed to the multi-function of the bacterium as depressant, collector and frother. Thus, the bacteria tested in this study could potentially be used as flotation bioreagents, providing an alternative to conventional flotation reagents.

• Periodical: Solid State Phenomena (Volume 262)
• Pages: 181-184
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/SSP.262.181
• Online since: August 2017
• Authors: Edy Sanwani*, Riria Zendy Mirahati, Siti Khodijah Chaerun
• Keywords: Bioflotation, Biosurfactants, Chalcopyrite, Iron-Oxidizing Mixotrophic Bacteria, Sulfur-Oxidizing Mixotrophic Bacteria

References

[1] M.N. Chandraprabha, K.A. Natarajan, P. Somasundaran, Selective separation of pyrite from chalcopyrite and arsenopyrite by biomodulation using Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans, Int. J. Miner. Process. 75 (2005) 113–122.

DOI: 10.1016/j.minpro.2004.08.014

[2] M.N. Chandraprabha, K.A. Natarajan, Surface chemical and flotation behaviour of chalcopyrite and pyrite in the presence of Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans, Hydrometallurgy 83 (2006) 146–152.

DOI: 10.1016/j.hydromet.2006.03.021

[3] P.K. Sharma, K.H. Rao, Role of the heterotrophic Paenibacillus polymyxa bacteria in the bioflotation of some sulphide minerals, Miner. Metall. Process. 16 (1999) 35–41.

DOI: 10.1007/bf03403232

[4] Y. Govender, M. Gericke, Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) from bioleaching systems and its application in bioflotation, Miner. Eng. 24 (2011) 1122-1127.

DOI: 10.1016/j.mineng.2011.02.016

[5] S.K. Chaerun, K. Tazaki, M. Okuno, Montmorillonite mitigates the toxic effect of heavy oil on hydrocarbon-degrading bacterial growth: implications for marine oil spill bioremediation, Clay Miner. 48 (2013) 639-654.

DOI: 10.1180/claymin.2013.048.4.17

[6] K.H. Rao, A. Vilinska, I.V. Chernyshova, Minerals bioprocessing: R & D needs in mineral biobeneficiation, Hydrometallurgy 104 (2010) 465–470.

DOI: 10.1016/j.hydromet.2010.01.016

[7] M. Farahat, T. Hirajima, K. Sasaki, Adhesion of Ferroplasma acidiphilum onto pyrite calculated from the extended DLVO theory using the van Oss–Good–Chaudhury approach, J. Coll. Interf. Sci. 349 (2010) 594-601.

DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2010.05.091