Thermophilic microorganisms in biomining

Biomining is an applied biotechnology for mineral processing and metal extraction from ores and concentrates. This alternative technology for recovering metals involves the hydrometallurgical processes known as bioleaching and biooxidation where the metal is directly solubilized or released from the matrix for further solubilization, respectively. Several commercial applications of biomining can be found around the world to recover mainly copper and gold but also other metals; most of them are operating at temperatures below 40–50 °C using mesophilic and moderate thermophilic microorganisms. Although biomining offers an economically viable and cleaner option, its share of the world´s production of metals has not grown as much as it was expected, mainly considering that due to environmental restrictions in many countries smelting and roasting technologies are being eliminated. The slow rate of biomining processes is for sure the main reason of their poor implementation. In this scenario the use of thermophiles could be advantageous because higher operational temperature would increase the rate of the process and in addition it would eliminate the energy input for cooling the system (bioleaching reactions are exothermic causing a serious temperature increase in bioreactors and inside heaps that adversely affects most of the mesophilic microorganisms) and it would decrease the passivation of mineral surfaces. In the last few years many thermophilic bacteria and archaea have been isolated, characterized, and even used for extracting metals. This paper reviews the current status of biomining using thermophiles, describes the main characteristics of thermophilic biominers and discusses the future for this biotechnology.