86 Trends in Biotechnology, Vol. 3, No.

4, 1985

Table 5. University research (%)
Basic Applied Development
Japan 55.8 37.0 7.2
US 60.3 27.3 12.4
UK 95.2 3.6 1.3
France 89.3 10.6 0.1
FRG 100.0 - -
The manifestation of this interest in
basic research is to be found in the surge
of new 'blue-sky' research labs being
established by Japanese companies.
These laboratories are frequently
aimed at giving their companies com-
petence in areas outside their tradi-
tional business. Biotechnology is one of
the most popular, with tremendous in-
volvement by food and drinks com-
panies in particular. Such companies
believe that they have no choice but to
venture into new business areas since
growth in their traditional businesses is
limited and, in some cases, subject to
competition from newly industrialized
countries in other parts of Asia. Even
Toyota has stated that some 30% of the
work done in their laboratories has
nothing to do with cars, while Nissan is
rapidly building on its existing aero-
space and satellite launch capabilities.
In biotechnology, many companies
from the food and beverages industries
are using their skills in fermentation
and distillation. What is surprising,
however, is the number of companies
from totally different industries which
are jumping on to the biotechnology
bandwagon. Hitachi is active in the area
of biosensors and the textile company
Kuraray is heavily involved in biotech-
nology-related research. Even cos-
metics are now being made biotech-
nologically with Kanebo marketing
new lines of 'Bio-Make' lipsticks and
eye shadows•
Japanese companies are not restrict-
ing their basic research facilities to
Japan itself. Several major firms are
currently building new R & D facilities
in the USA because the supply ofR & D
engineers in Japan, while more plen-
tiful than in many other countries, is a
potential constraint. In addition, the
Japanese still feel that US and Euro-
pean researchers may be more inno-
vative. In contrast, Hoechst has
recently gone ahead with plans to estab-
lish a biotechnology research labora-
tory in Japan because the Hoechst
management believes (after many years
of conducting business in Japan) that
Japanese researchers can bring special
and valuable analytical and develop-
mental skills.
The picture that emerges, then, is
one of a national R & D effort that is
well defined and where government
and industrial objectives are broadly in
line. The mechanisms by which
government and industry can com-
municate and ensure a common
approach are securely in place and have
been for a long time. As a result,
government does not need to produce
cash incentives to industry to steer it in
the chosen direction but instead is able
to help industry with the long-term pro-
jects which demand substantial cash
before commercialization is possible or
with projects where no single company
can be expected to have all the human
resources and skills necessary.
But the most striking feature is the
rapid build-up of basic R & D facilities
by private enterprise in Japan. Added
to the Japanese ability to spot good
ideas generated anywhere in the world
and their cultural acceptance that
buying technology is a perfectly accept-
able and sensible thing to do, it can
certainly be expected that Japan will
continue not only to be a major com-
mercial competitor for Europe and the
USA but also possibly the only con-
tender, along with the USA, in the
high-technology stakes of the future.

Microbial ore leaching in developing has been made in the understanding of

the mechanisms of bioleaching since
countries then but more is required•
In comparison with other hydro-
metallurgical and pyrometaUurgical
Juan Carlos Gentina and Femando Acevedo methods bacterial leaching appears to
be very well suited for the treatment of
Microbial leaching p r o c e s s e s are being considered as an e c o n o m i c a l and lowgrade ores and for the recovery of
technically viable alternative for p r o c e s s i n g low-grade ores and metals from the refuse of other pro-
w a s t e s in developing countries. T h e r e s e a r c h and d e v e l o p m e n t pro- cesses. In recent years energy-saving
g r a m s in developing countries a i m to design appropriate technologies and environmental considerations have
for the large scale exploitation o f local m i n e s . In m o s t cases m i n i n g c o m - stimulated interest in the bioleaching of
panies, universities, research institutes and g o v e r n m e n t a l and inter- flotation concentrates.
national agencies are all involved, d e m o n s t r a t i n g a widespread confi-
dence in the application o f this technology. Appropriate technology
According to Rogers' classification 2,
bacterial leaching falls into the category
Metal sulfides and some oxides are in- related microorganisms, obtain meta- of low level technology, using simple
soluble even in strong acidic conditionsbolic energy by oxidizing reduced equipment and operating procedures.
and cannot be leached out of the ores. minerals. The oxidation, or further 'Furthermore', he adds, 'it is likely that
However, leaching of ores can occur oxidation, of such reduced species pro- naturally adapted flora will effect the
through the oxidative solubilization of duces soluble sulfates or oxides, from fermentation. Typical examples are
minerals by the action of microorgan- which the metals can be recovered by •.. the in-situ and heap leaching of low-
isms. Several bacteria, notably conventional metallurgical processes. grade mineral sulfides, where the leach-
members of the genus Thiobacillus and Bacterial leaching has occurred ing is stimulated by microbial action,
naturally for centuries in mines and where simple extraction methods
throughout the world, but the role of are used'. In Da Silva's opinion 3, bio-
j. c. Gentina and F. Acevedo are at the
School of Biochemical Engineering, bacteria was only recognized a few metallurgy 'is becoming increasingly
Universidad Cat61ica de Valparaiso, decades ago when T. ferrooxidans was popular on account of its many advan-
Valparaiso, Chile. isolated and studied 1. Great progress tages. It allows for economic extraction
© 1985~El~evier~=iencePubl~hersB.V.,Amsterdam 0166-9430/85/$02.00
Trends in Biotechnology, VoL 3, No. 4, 1985 87

of valuable metals from low-grade ores, Table I. World copper production (thousandsof tons)*.
involves low capital costs and energy 1981 1982 1983
inputs in comparison with the pyro- AFRICA
metallurgy, utilizes simple tech- Namibia 44.3 48.8 54.2
nologies and does not pollute the SouthAfrica 210.6 207.1 210.8
atmosphere'. Zaire 504.8 502.8 502.5
These characteristics make bacterial Zambia 587.4 529.6 515.2
Others 50.4 64.4 62.2
leaching very appealling to developing Total 1397.5 1352.7 1344.9
countries, many of which have vast ASIA
minerals resources (as shown in Table 1 India 25.2 24.0 24.5
for copper). Indonesia 62.6 75.1 78.6
2.0 43.0 48.5
The relevance of bioleaching tech- Iran
51.5 51.0 46.0
Japan
niques in the developing world has Philippines 302.3 292.1 271.4
been stressed in several recent publica- Others 68.3 68.7 79.3
tions. Da Silva 5 states that 'the advent Total 511.9 553.9 548.3
of this new microbial technology, bio- AMERICA
Brazil 13.9 24.5 33.0
metallurgy, may provide an answer to Canada 691.3 612.0 614.8
the crisis looming on the horizons', and Chile 1081.1 1240.4 1257.2
comments on the possibilities of its Mexico 230.5 239.1 193.0
applications in countries like Zaire, Peru 327.6 356.3 322.0
Zimbabwe, Zambia, Chile and Peru. USA 1538.2 1139.6 1045.7
Ayanaba6 points out that biological Others 3.3 2.8 2.0
Total 3885.9 3614.7 3467.7
leaching of minerals was Considered AUSTRALASIA
extremely important in African Australia 231.3 245.3 264.6
development as long ago as 1974. A Papua New Guinea 165.4 170.0 183.2
report from the Economic Commission Total 396.7 415.3 447.8
EUROPE
for Latin America (CEPAL) 7, con- Spain 57.0 58.1 63.9
siders bioleaching to be the most Sweden 50.7 55.4 64.5
important biotechnology activity for Yugoslavia 111.0 119.3 13.4.8
the Latin America area, notably for Others 75.9 72.3 58.9
Bolivia, Chile and Peru. Of special Total 294.6 305.1 322.1
OTHER COUNTRIES
significance is the document issued by Bulgaria 62.0 70.0
U N I D O s. Mongolia 71.8 95.0
Poland 294.6 376.0
General features of bioleaching USSR 1140.0 1180.0
China and other Asia 182.0 187.0
Heap leaching is a hydrometallur- Others 65.6 72.7
gical process which has been used for Total 1816.0 1980.7
many years in the recovery of copper WORLD TOTAL 8302.6 8222.4
from low-grade oxide and sulfide ores. * Data from Ref. 4
The copper percentage of these ores is
Table2.Examples of commercialoperationsusingleachingfor copperrecovery9,w
too low to be economically recovered
by concentration and smelting, but not Copper
Mine (location) Type of Total Gu Bacteria production
low enough to be discarded and leaching (%) in effluent tons~year)
dumped as waste. This simple process
Duval, Copper Bassin Dump 0.31 unknown 2300
involves the circulation of a leaching (USA)
solution through the heap by gravity.
Solubilized copper is generally re- Duval, Esperanza Mine Dump 0.15-0.20 T. ferrooxidans 2500
covered from the solution by cementa- (USA)
tion with scrap iron. The stripped
Bluebird Mine Miami Heap 0.5 unknown 6800
solution is then recycled to the top of (USA)
the heap.
For years this was thought to be an Degtyansky Dump~In situ - T. ferrooxidans 900
exclusively chemical extraction mech- (USSR)
anism, until microorganisms were
Kosaka Mine In situ 0.15-0.25 T. ferrooxidans 800
detected in the acid waters of some (Japan)
mines. Several examples of heap or
dump leaching operations where Rio Tinto Dump Variable T. ferrooxidans 8000
microorganisms, notably T. ferro- (Spain)
oxidans, play a role are shown in Table Cananea Dump/In situ Variable T. ferrooxidans 9000
2. The importance of the microbial con- (Mexico)
tribution depends on the composition
of the ore: in the examples given the Santo Domingo In situ - T. ferrooxidans 670
ores are low in total copper content but (Portugal)
88 Trends in Biotechnology, Vol. 3, No. 4, 1985

proportionally high in copper sulfide Bolivia Brazil

minerals (chalcocite, chalcopyrite and Another country with a strong min- At Nuclebr~s (Brazilian Nuclear
coveUite). Bioleaching generally takes ing activity, Bolivia has shown interest Enterprise) the biohydrometaUurgy of
place naturally in heap leaching, but in bacterial leaching of sulfides. Native uranium recovery from low-grade ores
this microbial action can be improved. strains have been isolated, characterized is being investigated (De Andrade, T.
and evaluated for their activity in the R. and Fridman, S. V., personal com-
treatment of sulfide ores s munications) while at IPT (Tech-
Applications in developing
nological Research Institute of Sao
countries India Paulo) ~5 and at C E T E M (Center for
Interest in the less-developed
India has shown interest in bacterial Mineral Technology)x6, studies have
countries has focused mainly on testing
leaching of copper from low-grade ores been carried out on native microbial
the susceptibility of indigenous
and dumps. At the M.A.C.S. Research strains and low-grade copper sulfide
minerals and wastes to biohydrometal-
Institute, Pune, ores from the ores from Camaqua, Rio Grande do
lurgical processes.
Singhbhum region have been analysed Sul, and Caraiba, Bahia.
with respect to its amenability to bio-
Peru leaching, and several important strains Chile
This country has large reserves of have been isolated and characterized Chile has become the world's leading
copper and participates strongly in the (Agate, A. D., personal communica- producer of copper with an annual pro-
world copper market. The potential of tion). Bacterial activity in the duction exceeding I x 106 tons in the
last few years. About 80% of this is pro-
Table 3. Potential recovery of copperin tailings in Chile duced by CODELCO's mines (Chile's
Estimated Cu in tailings" 120 000 ton/year National Copper Corporation, a state
Recovered Cu (60% yield) 72 300 ton/year enterprise). Chilean copper reserves
Increased salesb 98 617 000 US$/year have been estimated at 150x 106 tons,
a Based on 1983 production of Chuquicamata and E1 Teuiente Mines but 47× 106 tons of this total are con-
b Estimated selling price of US$0.62/pound tained in low-grade ores where recovery
by conventional technology is not pro-
Table4. Potential recovery of copper in low-grade ores in Chile fitable. As the Chilean copper industry
has grown, so has its waste. Thousands
Total low-gradeorereserves 47 000 000ton
Totalcopperrecoverya 14 000 000ton of tons of acid-leached ores and tailings
Totalincreasedsalesb 19 000 000 000US$ accumulated over the years and the con-
a Estimatedoverallyieldof 30%~equivalentto treating halfthe reserveswith a 60% recovery tinuous decrease in copper content of
b Estimatedsellingpriceof US$0.62/pound the ores has meant that ever-increasing
amounts of waste are generated. This
bioleaching for recovery of low-grade processing of manganese has also been situation has stimulated research at
copper ores of the Toromocho Mine studied at the Institute ~2. India is universities, research institutes and
has been studied at pilot plant levellk It already one of the biggest manganese mines on applying bacterial leaching to
is estimated that the Toromocho site producers in the world but biohydro- increase copper recovery. The basic
contains 5.84 x 108 tons of treatable ore metallurgical processes could enable biochemistry, physiology and genetics
with an average total copper content of this country to continue to reach inter- of leaching bacteria are under investiga-
0.39%. Interestingly, the mine site is national markets with high-quality tion together with engineering factors
over 4500 meters above the sea level, products at competitive costs. such as growth and leaching kinetics,
where the temperature fluctuates Laboratory scale feasibility studies mass transfer processes and mode
between - 1 4 and 21°C. The pilot on bacterial leaching of uranium have operation ~7-24.These initiatives are co-
operation involved treating between been conducted, following the demon- ordinated under a national multi-insti-
10 000 and 36 000 ton of ore which was stration of a high content of uranium tutional program.
stacked in layers (in one case), or in water samples leaking from exploited The economic potential of this tech-
dumped. The dump operation gave zones of a mine at Jaduguda. Of the nology in Chile is indicated in Tables 3
better results because of the high microorganisms also detected in these and 4 and with this as an incentive the
porosity of the material, a function of samples, T. ferrooxidans predomin- industrial commitment is high. At
the particle size distribution of the ore. ated ~3. Chuquicamata, the world's largest
In one operation, 46% of the copper open pit mine, a project on the
was extracted over 230 days (an average Portugal feasibility of bioleaching in ore-waste
rate of 0.2% per day) while in another, Natural leaching of low-grade ores is dumps has reached industrial scale 25.
63% was extracted in 443 days (0.14% used for uranium recovery at Bica in The Pudahuel Mining Society plans to
per day). An economical evaluation central Portugal and the effects on rate increase its secondary leaching
based on these data of a plant process- of leaching of several variables related recovery stage using native bacteria and
ing 6250 ton/month of a 0.5% coppe L to the process have been studied. The there is also great interest at the mines
ore, gave an attractive figure of 59% in- natural process allows the extraction of of Quebrada Blanca, Pelambres and
ternal rate of return. Other metals (A1, 50% of the uranium in 6-12 months, Potrerillos. At E1 Teniente, the world's
Zn, Mn, Mg) were dissolved in the but it is possible to recover over 80% of largest underground copper mine,
leaching solution and a selective re- the uranium in 20-24 weeks by altering experiments on the recovery of copper
covery process could add to the incen- conditions which affect the action of from the huge amounts of low-grade
tive for the project. bacteria ~4. ores and accumulated tailings which
Trends in Biotechnology, VoL 3, No. 4, 1985
exist there have been in progress for the
last two years. The recovery of precious
metals adds further incentive to the
project (Ovalle, A., personal communi-
cation). At Andacollo, where natural
leaching accounts for much of its
copper production, a very active strain
of T. ferrooxidans has been isolated and
several studies carried out to evaluate
the bacterial action on the insoluble
sulfide ores 26.
The considerable increase of interest
from developing countries in bacterial
leaching is illustrated by the fact that at
the International Symposium on Bac-
terial Leaching held at Socorro, New
Mexico, in 197927, only one paper
(3.6% of the total) represented the
developing areas whereas, at the Inter-
national Symposium of 1983, in
Cagliari 2s, nine papers came from
developing countries (16.6% of the
total).
International efforts
The developing world is making a
considerable effort to establish appro-
priate technologies for bioprocessing
minerals. Fortunately, bacterial leach-
ing programs have received the invalu-
able support of several international
agencies and institutions. UNESCO,
in 19746 and 197529, recognized the
technical and economical potential of
bioleaching for the developing
countries and since then has greatly
helped international efforts in this field;
recently UNESCO announced the pro-
duction of audio-visual material on
microbial ore leaching and designated
the MIRCEN-associated laboratory of
the Catholic University of Valparaiso,
Chile, as a bioleaching specialist
member ~o.
The support given by the Cartagena
Accord of the Andean Countries Group
to bacterial leaching research and
development programs in Peru and
Bolivia, has also been of special
importance s and the Organization of
American States has contributed
through some of its multinational pro-
grams and by sponsoring international
meetings and seminars.
The United Nations Industrial
Development Organization (UNIDO)
has shown increasing interest in bio-
technology in the last few years:
'Advances in biotechnology could sub-
stantially improve living standards in
developing countries.., the new tech-
nologies that are emerging in this field
may well provide an important tool on
the basis of which they could move
forward in their economic and social
development, in a manner suited to
their own resources and conditions'
said Dr Abd-E1 Rahman Khane,
Executive Director of U N I D O in
December 19823k This has certainly
been the case in bioleaching. The in-
creased understanding of the process
and the awareness of the potential
benefits from an economical point of
view have stimulated the technology in
developing countries.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to express their
deepest appreciation for the valuable
help received from the following dis-
tinguished scientists and engineers:
Arvind Agate (India), Fernando Cal-
mell del Solar (JUNAC, Peru),
Teresinha R. de Andrade (Brazil),
Roberto de Le6n (Guatemala), Rodolfo
Ertola (Argentina), Silvia V. Fridman
(Brazil) and Raffl Portillo (Bolivia).
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