Lecture-The role of biogeochemical processes in concentration of elements in nature and in extraction of metals from their ores

Abstract

When Dr Altekar asked me to deliver a popular talk on 'Bacterial Leaching' I readily agreed but, later, when I started to think about the matter, I found myself running into difficulties. My problem was how to talk of something generally unfamiliar in popular terms. We have all heard of bacteria but are hardly familiar with them.. On the other hand, bacteria are very familiar with us and thrive and flourish on us-both within our bodies and in our environments. It would appear that we are more popular with them than they are with us ! The difficulty in talking of them in popular terms is, therefore, self evident. It is with this misgiving in my mind that I am talking to you today and hope that by the time we reach the end of this talk, bacteria will have become more popular with us than hitherto. In talking on the subject, I also feel guilty of carrying coal to New Castle, I derived my inspiration for heap leaching of uranium from discussion of some papers presented in the 1964 UN Conference cn Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy held in Geneva, and in the same year we initiated this work in the Atomic Minerals Division. We fe't it was necessary to extract uranium from ore dumps collected at the site of various abandoned prospects instead of letting it go to waste. Following successful results obtained in our Mineral Technology Laboratories, work was undertaken at some of the prospect sites on ore in bulk and successfully completed.