Bacterial assimilation reduction of iron in the treatment of non-metallics

Abstract

Natural non-metallics, including granitoide and quartz sands, often contain iron which decreases the whiteness of these raw materials. Insoluble Fe3+ in these samples could be reduced to soluble Fe2+ by bacteria of Bacillus spp. and Saccharomyces spp. The leaching effect, observed by the measurement of Fe2+concentration in a solution, showed higher activities of a bacterial kind isolated from the Bajkal lake and also by using of yeast Saccharomyces sp. during bioleaching of quartz sands. However, allkinds of Bacillus spp. isolated from the Slovak deposit and from Bajkal lake were very active in the iron reduction during bioleaching of the feldspar raw material. This metal was efficiently removed from quartz sands as documented by the Fe2O3 decrease (from 0,317 % to 0,126 %) and from feldpars raw materials by the Fe2O3 decrease (from 0,288 % to 0,115 %) after bioleaching. The whiteness of these non-metallics was increased during a visual comparison of samples before and after bioleaching but samples contain selected magnetic particles. A removal of iron as well as a release of iron minerals from silicate matrix should increase the effect of the magnetic separation and should give a product which is suitable for industrial applications.

Keywords

• feldspars
• quartz sands
• bioleaching
• Bacillus sp.
• iron reduction