Bioleaching of mineral ores in a suspended solid bubble column

摘要

Bioleaching of precious metals contained in pyrite and/or arseniopyrite is usually done in huge aerated stirred tank reactors. In this work, the possibility is investigated to use slurry bubble columns with high solid loading in order to limit the reactor volume and decreasing the water consumption which can be of great improtance from an environmental point of view. In order to investigate the feasibility of bioleaching in slurry bubble columns, two long duration bioleaching experiments have been performed in a bubble column (ID 0.1 m; height: 2.0 m) with a pyrite load of 33