Microbial Recovery of Gold from Mahd El-Dahab Mine Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

摘要

This paper considers the use of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a biosorbent for the recovery of gold from Mahd El-Dahhab gold mine in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Gold is a noble metal which was seldom used in electroplating, hydrogenation catalyst, etc. Heterogeneous composition of samples and low concentration offer renewed interest in the selective extraction of gold using various extractants. In the present work, Saccharomyces cerevisiae , is used to study the preconcentration of gold, which in the original sample was 0.44 ppm, while after treatment with Saccharomyces cerevisiae it raises to 7 ppm with efficiency reaching about 1600%.