Column Bioleaching of Arsenic and Heavy Metals from Gold Mine Tailings by Aspergillus fumigatus

Abstract

A column bioleaching experiment was carried out to compare the effectiveness of the fungus Aspergillus fumigatus to bioleach arsenic (As) and heavy metals from the tailings using two different methods. In the first method, which is named as distribution method (DM), the fungus was distributed in the column by means of vertical and horizontal layers of coarse sand. In the other method, named as surface applied method (SAM), the fungus was cultivated on the surface of the tailings, which was covered with a few centimeters of coarse sand. Results showed that in the DM, oxalic acid production was stimulated and maximum removal of As, Fe, Mn, and Zn was 53, 51, 81, and 62%, respectively. However, Pb removal was low (8%), which might be due to the precipitation of Pb as its oxalates. On the other hand, the maximum removal of As, Fe, Mn, Pb, and Zn were 22, 28, 37, 64, and 34%, respectively, for the SAM. Results of the sequential extraction study showed that the DM was effective in removing the water soluble, exchangeable, carbonate, and Fe/Mn oxide fractions of As, Fe, Mn, and Zn. Our study suggested that A. fumigatus has a potential to be used in remediation of heavy metal contaminated sites. Distributing the fungus throughout the entire tailings columns improved the bioleaching of heavy metals by the fungus.

Review of Biohydrometallurgical Metals Extraction from Polymetallic Mineral Resources

“…• bioleaching in batch reactors, stirred tanks or columns, including one column leaching experiment in which fungi were applied as inoculum [395];…”

“…• direct bioleaching in which heterotrophic fungi produced organic acids when supplied with sources of organic carbon and the organic acids effected metals extraction from oxidised mine waste or tailings [344,395,[397][398][399][400][401][402][403][404][405];…”

Bacterial generation of liquid arsenic waste and the application of water-soluble polymers for arsenic ions separation

“…The effectiveness of the fungus called Aspergillus funmigatus towards the bioleaching of arsenic from arsenic-bearing minerals was tested (She-Bardan et al 2012a). The fungus of Aspergillus fumigates was (Hallberg et al 1996)] isolated from gold mine tailings.…”

Removal of Heavy Metals [Ni+3, Hg+2, Pb+2, Cd+2 and Zn+2] Ions from Contaminated Soil by Combined Action-Borne Fungus, Funalia trogii

“…Synthetic remediation procedures are more suitable from the researchers' point of view; however, they are not economically encouraged for substantial scale soil remediation, as they create a lot of spill, which needs promote treatment before transfer (Diels et al, 1999;Chen et al, 2009). Recently, biosorption has risen as a promising, promising cost-effective procedure for the expulsion of metals from the dirt, where organic parts are utilized to expel and recover overwhelming metals from dirtied soil (Schnoor, 1997;Morsy et al, 2010;Bardan et al, 2012). The microbial remediation of metals is a mind-boggling procedure that depends on the science of metal particles, cell division structure of microorganisms, cell physiology, and physicochemical variables like pH, temperature, time, ionic quality, and metal focus (Mishra et al, 2012).…”