Innovative biohydrometallurgical approaches in the EU project FAME

• Type: Article in International Conference Proceedings Book
• Date: 2017-08-21

Authors

Maria Cristina Vila (Author) FEUP; António Fiúza (Author) FEUP; Susan Reichel (Author) Other; Mirko Martin (Author) Other; Christopher G. Bryan (Author) Other; Wolfgang Reimer (Author) Other

Conference proceedings International

Title: Solid State Phenomena

Pages: 307-310

22nd International Biohydrometallurgy Symposium, 2017

24 September 2017 through 27 September 2017

Indexing

Scopus - 0 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00N-15R

DOI: 10.4028/www.scientific.net/ssp.262.307

Abstract (EN): The FAME (Flexible and Mobile Economic Processing Technologies) project targets the development of flexible and economic processing technologies for small and low-grade European ore deposits with complex mineralogy, targeting greisen, skarn and pegmatite ores. Amongst the valuable elements to be recovered are W, Sn, Li and minor constituents like In, Ge, Ga, Nb or Ta. To improve the processing of by-product sulfides to recover critical elements like In or Ga and to develop innovative processing strategies for raw materials, biohydrometallurgical technologies are investigated. There are different approaches in FAME for the biohydrometallurgical recovery of valuable metals from low grade ores: 1) the extraction of Li from zinnwaldite and lepidolite, 2) the heap leaching of low grade sulfide ore unsuitable for conventional processing to recover Zn and In, and 3) the bioleaching of sulfide concentrates in a two-stage tank process for recovery of Zn and Cu. So far the most promising results were achieved for heap-leaching of low-grade Zn-In ores achieving 7.4 ppm In in the leaching solution and for Li extraction (28%) from zinnwaldite. © 2017 Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific