Mineral leaching of low-grade laterite ores using `bioacids' by molasses fungal metabolism

Tzeferis, PG

dc.contributor.author	Tzeferis, PG	en
dc.date.accessioned	2014-03-01T01:42:40Z
dc.date.available	2014-03-01T01:42:40Z
dc.date.issued	1994	en
dc.identifier.issn	07479182	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://dspace.lib.ntua.gr/xmlui/handle/123456789/23883
dc.relation.uri	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-0028481776&partnerID=40&md5=9176353385f79872935aa2f105cb6f88	en
dc.subject.other	Fungi	en
dc.subject.other	Leaching	en
dc.subject.other	Metabolism	en
dc.subject.other	Molasses	en
dc.subject.other	Organic acids	en
dc.subject.other	Pyrometallurgy	en
dc.subject.other	Sugar (sucrose)	en
dc.subject.other	Bioacids	en
dc.subject.other	Low grade laterite ores	en
dc.subject.other	Nickel ore treatment	en
dc.title	Mineral leaching of low-grade laterite ores using `bioacids' by molasses fungal metabolism	en
heal.type	journalArticle	en
heal.publicationDate	1994	en
heal.abstract	Factory beet molasses media were used as cheap sources of sucrose for microbial leaching of Greek nickeliferrous laterites using strains of Penicillium and Aspergillus sp. Nickel recoveries of up to 62% and cobalt recoveries of up to 50% were obtained by leaching in a two-phase system in which bioacids were produced by fungal metabolism in molasses ferrocyanide pretreated media. The addition of potassium ferrocyanide to the molasses substrates prior to leaching was found to have a beneficial effect by increasing the level of citric acid bioproduction, thus improving the leaching efficiency of the fermentation liquid. The metals known to interfere with citric acid production (i.e., Fe, Cu, Ca and Mn) were those most efficiently precipitated. Considering the much lower commercial price of molasses in the industrial market compared to sucrose and glucose carbohydrate media, molasses could prove to be a promising alternative, despite the cost of the required pretreatment.	en
heal.publisher	Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration Inc., Littleton, CO, United States	en
heal.journalName	Minerals and Metallurgical Processing	en
dc.identifier.volume	11	en
dc.identifier.issue	3	en
dc.identifier.spage	125	en
dc.identifier.epage	129	en