The term bioleaching is described as a natural process; This process is also known as “Bacterial Leaching”, it consists of the treatment of sulfur minerals by the action of bacteria such as Thiobacillus Ferrooxidans in order to oxidize these minerals in search of releasing the metallic values they possess.
That is, it is a natural process that manifests itself from the attack of a group of bacteria responsible for oxidizing the sulfur minerals in your food, causing the escape of each of the metals found in them. This technique is generally used for the recovery of certain metals such as gold, silver, copper, etc.
As it is well said, bioleaching is used for the treatment of certain minerals, specifically gold sulphide minerals with the help of the bacterium Thiobacillus Ferrooxidans, whose objective is to oxidize these reduced sulfur species to sulphate and the ferrous ion to ferric ion. .
In bacterial leaching there is a separation process that differs from the leaching process, because in the former it occurs with living organisms, that is, bacteria, the best known being the already mentioned Thiobacillus ferroxidans. It should be noted that these bacteria can be classified as harmless to the ecosystem and to humans, they do not release any type of toxic or corrosive gases and require little energy, being seen as something positive and characteristic of bacteria; In addition, they feed on certain minerals such as sulfur, iron or arsenic, which are elements that are generally close to copper sulfides and that must be released to recover the copper in a purer state.
