Bioleaching of Rare Metals from Manganese Nodules by Thiobacillus Ferrooxidans

Manganese nodules, which constitute a potential future resource of rare metals, are composed mainly of oxides of manganese and iron, with various metals such as copper, nickel, and cobalt. Although physical and chemical processes have been developed for extracting the rare metals from manganese nodules, another possible process is the leaching of metals by microbial means.

This paper describes leaching of raw manganese nodules by sulfurous acid and sulfuric acid which are biologically produced by oxidation of elemental sulfur by Thiobacillus ferrooxidans. The bioleaching behavior of each metal from nodules was measured at 30°C and pH 2 in a well-mixed batch reactor. The metal content of the nodules used in this work was 0.29% Cu, 0.49% Ni, 0.27% Co, 16% Fe and 17% Mn by weights. For both the microbial system and the control culture containing no T.ferrooxidans, copper and nickel exhibited close to 100% leaching in two weeks and less than 5% for iron and manganese. On the other hand, leaching of cobalt was markedly accelerated in the microbial system reaching 50% in two weeks compared with the sterile control. The bioleaching rate of cobalt was enhanced as the initial sulfur-liquid loading ratio became higher, but is was practically independent of the nodule size which was less than 330 mesh. Moreover, there was an optimal relation between the bioleaching rate and the initial cell concentration, and the addition of T.ferrooxidans cells in excess of the optimal concentration resulted in a decrease in the leaching rate of cobalt.