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Bioleaching metal-bearing wastes and by-products for resource recovery: a review

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The global transition to a circular economy calls for research and development on technologies facilitating sustainable resource recovery from wastes and by-products. Metal-bearing materials, including electronic wastes, tailings, and metallurgical by-products, are increasingly viewed as valuable resources, with some possessing comparable or superior quality to natural ores. Bioleaching, an eco-friendly and cost-effective alternative to conventional hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical methods, uses microorganisms and their metabolites to extract metals from unwanted metal-bearing materials. The performance of bioleaching is influenced by pH, solid concentration, energy source, agitation rate, irrigation rate, aeration rate, and inoculum concentration. Optimizing these parameters improves yields and encourages the wider application of bioleaching. Here, we review the microbial diversity and specific mechanisms of bioleaching for metal recovery. We describe the current operations and approaches of bioleaching at various scales and summarise the influence of a broad range of operational parameters. Finally, we address the primary challenges in scaling up bioleaching applications and propose an optimisation strategy for future bioleaching research. Read More

NWE-REGENERATIS - Geophysical survey campaign at Teesworks site, UK

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Members of the project team have recently visited Teesworks to inspect the former Tata Steel landfill located there which is estimated to be more than 95% steel slag. (With operation ceasing in July 2002). In order to characterise the structure and type of metallurgical wastes, a team of geophysicists from BRGM and the University of Liège accompanied by members of MPI and Cranfield University conducted a geophysical survey on the Teesworks site. From 17th to 24th May. Read More

PILOT TESTS IN CTP - BELGIUM

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The NWE-REGENERATIS project (Interreg North-West Europe), coordinated by SPAQUE, aims at demonstrating that resources (metals, minerals and land) can be recovered from Past Metallurgical Sites and Deposits (PMSDs) by Urban Mining techniques. CTP's involvement in the project consists essentially of evaluating the metals recovery potential from three metallurgical sites, located in Belgium, France and UK , by applying mineral processing techniques. Read More