Bioleaching of heavy metals from mine tailings by indigenous sulfur-oxidizing bacteria: Effects of substrate concentration

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of substrate concentration (elemental sulfur) on remobilization of heavy metals from mine tailings by indigenous sulfur-oxidizing bacteria. Also, the variation in the binding forms of heavy metals before and after bioleaching was explored. This work showed the laboratory results of bioleaching experiments on Pb–Zn–Cu mine tailings. The results showed that 97.54% Zn, 97.12% Cu, and 44.34% Pb could be removed from mine tailings by the bioleaching experiment after 13 days at 2% w/v substrate concentration. The results also indicated that substrate concentration 2% was found to be best to bacterial activity and metal solubilization of the five substrate concentration tested (0.5%, 1%, 2%, 3%, and 5%) under the chosen experimental conditions. The bioleaching had a significant impact on changes in partitioning of heavy metals.