Article -> Article Details

Bio-mining

Biomining is the technique of the use of microorganisms (microbes) to extract metals of the financial hobby from rock ores or mine waste. Biomining techniques can also be used to smooth up sites that have been polluted with metals.

Biomining process by which garbage is handled with bio-organisms or herbal factors like air and daylight in order that the biodegradable factors in the waste destroy down over time. Civic government in the rate of gathering waste, normally unload blended waste – biodegradable and non-biodegradable – in the rubbish dump sites over the years.

Through bio-mining, this unsegregated gathered heap of waste is uncovered to bio-organisms and to air and the solar in order that the biodegradable waste a few of the layers receives decomposed via the herbal process. Whatever is left over might be non-biodegradable material, which must be treated separately.

Bio-mining is a process involving digging out previously dumped or disposed of material from landfill sites to recover plastic, metal, glass, combustibles, other fine material, and soil. Plastic, metals, and other material thus recovered will be sent for recycling. The biodegradable waste in a landfill site gets decomposed. When non-biodegradable materials in the same site are recovered and sent for recycling, the land under them can be reclaimed for further use.

Biomining is the technique of extracting metals from ores and other solid materials typically using prokaryotes, fungi or plants (phytoextraction also known as phytomining or biomining).[1] These organisms secrete different organic compounds that chelate metals from the environment and bring it back to the cell where they are typically used to coordinate electrons. It was discovered in the mid-1900s that microorganisms use metals in the cell. Some microbes can use stable metals such as iron, copper, zinc, and gold as well as unstable atoms such as uranium and thorium. Companies can now grow large chemostats of microbes that are leaching metals from their media, these vats of culture can then be transformed into many marketable metal compounds. Biomining is an environmentally friendly technique compared to typical mining. Mining releases many pollutants while the only chemicals released from biomining is any metabolites or gasses that the bacteria secrete. The same concept can be used for bioremediation models. Bacteria can be inoculated into environments contaminated with metals, oils, or other toxic compounds. The bacteria can clean the environment by absorbing these toxic compounds to create energy in the cell. Microbes can achieve things at a chemical level that could never be done by humans. Bacteria can mine for metals, clean oil spills, purify gold, and use radioactive elements for energy.

Advantages of biomining:

Improved rates of metal recovery
Reduced capital cost
Ideally suited for use in remote locations
Environmentally friendly
Appropriate to recover a wide spectrum of metals and stabilize toxic elements
Short lead time from design to construction to operation
Bio-mining is more environmentally friendly than other processing methods such as smelting or roasting of mineral ores, which produce a lot of pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide.
The bioleaching technology is implemented in closed circuits, so water usage is well controlled.
Environmental risks of biomining:

When base metals such as cobalt, zinc, nickel, or copper are extracted by use of acidophilic bacteria, water containing sulphuric acid, similar to acid mine drainage needs to be properly disposed of.
Mercury pollution:

It is basically contamination caused due to the spread and presence of mercury in our daily lives.
Mercury occurs naturally in the earth’s crust, but human activities, such as mining and fossil fuel combustion, have led to widespread global mercury pollution.
Mercury emitted into the air eventually settles into water or onto land where it can be washed into the water.
Once deposited, certain microorganisms can change it into methyl mercury, a highly toxic form that builds up in fish, shellfish and animals that eat fish.
Most human exposure to mercury is from eating fish and shellfish contaminated with methyl mercury.
Land, water, and other surfaces can repeatedly re-emit mercury into the atmosphere after its initial release into the environment.
Globally, artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is the largest source of anthropogenic mercury emissions followed by stationary combustion of coal.
Other large sources of emissions are non-ferrous metals production and cement production.
Effects:

It has toxic effects on nervous, digestive, and immune systems and on lungs, kidneys, skin and eyes.
The developing fetus and young children are most at risk.
Minamata disease, neurological disease is caused by severe mercury poisoning.
Once released into the environment, mercury bioaccumulates and biomagnifies in the food chain and easily enters the human body.
Mercury pollution also harms wildlife and ecosystems.
It may also cause skin rashes and dermatitis.