Researchers Isolate Copper- Extracting Bacteria

meckardt writes "Using biological processes to retrieve metals from a subtrate has been at best a topic of science fiction. However, in today's news a Japanese-Chilean research firm reported a breakthrough in developing new technology that uses bacteria to extract copper from poor quality mineral at a low cost."

Comments

Re:Gold, silver, etc.?

[Kevin Burtch]

Actually, yes.

It doesn't eat copper, it just accumulates it

[Chemisor]

It doesn't eat copper, it just accumulates it. This means that it can only absorb copper ions that are already dissolved, even if only in low concentration. If such bacteria got onto your motherboard, the effect would be cleansing, rather than destructive.

Reaction rate?

[cagle_.25]

Not mentioned in the article is how quickly the bacteria do their job. The sister project mentioned here:

Codelco also has a joint venture with BHP Billiton called Alliance Copper Limited, which uses another form of bioleaching to produce 20,000 tons a year of copper cathodes at a pilot plant in northern Chile.

seems a bit modest considering that US production of copper alone exceeds 1.5M metric tons

Error in story

[barakn]

meckardt writes "Using biological processes to retrieve metals from a subtrate has been at best a topic of science fiction."

Bacteria have been used in the copper and iron mining industries for a long time, especially for the sulfide ores. There's a diagram in the 6th edition (1991) of Biology of Microorganisms by Brock and Madigan, p. 650, of the microbial leaching of copper sulfide minerals. Water containing a ferric sulfate solution is dribbled over a pile of copper sulfide ore. Using oxygen or ferric iron and water, bacteria oxidize the copper into the soluble Cu2+, with ferrous iron, water and sulfate as byproducts. The water moves to a non-biological stage where the Cu2+ is reduced to metal by reacting with iron scrap metal. The iron is oxidized to the soluble ferrous form. In the last stage, another microbe, Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, oxidizes the ferrous ions to ferric ions, and the ferric sulfate solution is pumped back to the top of the hill (occasionally sulfuric acid is added).

Re:how about some medicine

[barakn]

No. First, a leached metal becomes soluble (I doubt the metal is locked up in some mineral in the body waiting to be leached anyway), meaning it would be free to float through the body and cause more damage. Second, bacteria in the blood cause septic shock, which can be fatal. Any antibiotic related to penecillin will destroy bacterial cell walls, lysing the cells (and releasing bacterial toxins). If you were hoping the bacteria would sponge up the metals, dosing them with antibiotics would just release the metals. And are silicon and zinc heavy metals? I don't think so.

Re:Gold, silver, etc.?

[Colymbosathon ecplec]

Here are a couple more articles: "Alaska Bugs Sweat Gold Nuggets", and "Domesticating the Gold Bugs, and the Copper Bugs Too" so it's not really new.