ABSTRACT
Bioleaching and biomining activities have been approved for thousands of years and nowadays they are methods used worldwide to obtain essential metals such as gold, copper, iron and several others for industrial use. Biomining comprises two related microbial processes that are useful in the extractive metallurgy of heavy metals: bacterial leaching, also known as bioleaching, and bio-oxidation. Microbes play a dynamic role in bioleaching processes in commercial mining. Leaching is the solubilization of one or more constituents of a complex solid by contact with a liquid phase. Modern mining companies have supportable mining programs that include tailings management and external verifications; it is recognized that these industrial activities are liable for significant damage to the environment. Treatment of mineral industry effluents by microorganisms, with the incidental recovery of some metal values, constitutes an equally important area of biomineral processing. The most common techniques used in mining for leaching or extracting metal values is through shake flask, tank, pressure and leaching followed by bioreactors or percolation columns and finally heap leaching. Inventive synthetic biology implements have made it possible to transform the biomining industry and facilitate the extraction of value from elements and wastes. It is concluded that the future of bioleaching and biomining is a promising application.
