Waste to Value Challenge - Customised biomining

The project will focus on developing innovative bioleaching methods for base metal recovery from mine tailings in order to reduce the concentration of sulphides so the residue could be used as a raw material for the construction industry and ultimately decrease the amount of sulphidic mine waste produced. To that end, we will aim to develop new microbial consortia able to optimally bioleach mine tailings, these will be used for bioleaching of mine tailings in stirred tank bioreactors and in laboratory-scale columns to study their bioleaching potential of coarse mine waste. The outcome of the experiments will provide essential data that will enable the identification of how the proposed process could progress to industrial scale. The overall process will contribute to the reduction of mine waste tailings, valorisation of this waste material and through that, a route to safe disposal to prevent future pollution of water bodies and soil.