Effect of solids concentration on removal of heavy metals from mine tailings via bioleaching.
Mining of mineral ore and disposal of resulting waste tailings pose a significant risk to the surrounding environment. The objective of this work is to demonstrate the feasibility to remove heavy metals from mine tailings with the use of bioleaching and meanwhile to investigate the effect of solids concentration on removal of heavy metals from mine tailings by indigenous sulfur-oxidizing bacteria and the transformation of heavy metal forms after the bioleaching process. This work showed the laboratory results of bioleaching experiments on Pb-Zn-Cu mine tailings. The results showed that 98.08% Zn, 96.44% Cu, and 43.52% Pb could be removed from mine tailings by the bioleaching experiment after 13 days at 1% (w/v) solids concentration and the rates of pH reduction, ORP rise and sulfate production were reduced with the increase of solids concentration, due to the buffering capacity of mine tailing solids. The results also indicated that solid concentration 1% was found to be best to bacterial activity and metal solubilization of the five solids concentration tested (1%, 2%, 5%, 8% and 10%) under the chosen experimental conditions. In addition, the bioleaching had a significant impact on changes in partitioning of heavy metals.
Liu
Yun-Guo
YG
College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, PR China. axore@163.com
Zhou
Ming
M
Zeng
Guang-Ming
GM
Li
Xin
X
Xu
Wei-Hua
WH
Fan
Ting
T
D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007220:Industrial Waste; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000737:chemistry*; D008906:Mining; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D012995:Solubility; D013431:Sulfates / Q000737:chemistry
D007220:Industrial Waste; D019216:Metals, Heavy; D013431:Sulfates