Efficacy of Bacterial Adaptation on Copper Biodissolution from a Low Grade Chalcopyrite Ore by A. ferrooxidans

A low-grade ore containing ~0.3% Cu, remains unutilized for want of a viable process at Malanjkhand Copper Project (MCP), India in which copper is present as chalcopyrite associated with pyrite in quartz veins and granitic rocks. In order to extract copper from this material, bioleaching has been attempted on bench scale using Acidithiobacillus fer-rooxidans (A. ferrooxidans) isolated from the native mine water. The enriched culture containing A. ferrooxidans when adapted to the ore and employed for the bioleaching at 5% (w/v) pulp density, pH 2.0 and 25°C with three particle sizes viz.150 -76 μm, 76 - 50 μm and <50 μm, resulted in recovery of 38.31%, 29.68% and 47.5% Cu respectively with a maximum rise in redox potential (ESCE) from 530 to 654 mV in 35 days. Under similar conditions, the unadapted strains gave a recovery of 44.0% for <50 μm size particles with a rise in ESCE from 525 to 650 mV. On using unadapted bacte-rial culture directly in shake flask at pH 2.0 and 35°C temperature and 5% (w/v) pulp density (PD) for <50 μm size par-ticles, 72% Cu bio-dissolution was achieved in 35 days. Copper biorecovery increased to 75.3% under similar condi-tions with a rise in bacterial count from 1 × 107 cells/mL to 1.13 × 109 cells/mL in 35 days. The higher bio-recovery of copper with the adapted bacterial culture may be attributed to the improved iron oxidation (Fe2+ to Fe3+) exhibiting higher ESCE as compared to that of unadapted strains.