Bioleaching of Au-Containing Ore Slates and Pyrite Wastes

Abstract

The influence of the environment and bacterial cultures on the degree of gold leaching from Au-containing raw materials of different compositions, origins, and with different contents of gold, selected in the Ural Federal District (Russia), was determined. The leaching degree was determined according to the change of the gold concentration in the ore by means of mass-spectrometry with inductively-coupled plasma. It was demonstrated that the degree of Au bioleaching from carbonaceous-argillaceous slates, containing 2.17 g/t of gold, and from pyritic technogenic raw materials, containing 1.15 g/t, when holding them in peptone water and Leten medium reached 92.17% and 87.83%, respectively.