Environmentally-Friendly Compositions and Methods for Extracting Minerals and Metals from Ore

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2024318278-A1
Application number	US-202418672137-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 23, 2024
Priority date	Dec 27, 2017
Publication date	Sep 26, 2024
Grant date	—

Abstract

The subject invention provides safe, environmentally-friendly, compositions and methods for extracting minerals and/or metals from ore. More specifically, the subject invention provides for bioleaching using a composition comprising one or more biosurfactant-producing microorganisms and/or microbial growth by-products. In specific embodiments, the composition comprises biosurfactant-producing yeasts and/or their growth by-products.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A biological leaching reagent comprising one or more microorganisms and/or microbial growth by-products, wherein at least one of the microorganisms is a biosurfactant-producing yeast.

2 . The biological leaching reagent of claim 1 , wherein the biosurfactant-producing yeast is Starmerella bombicola.

3 . The biological leaching reagent of claim 2 , comprising S. bombicola yeast cell biomass and biosurfactants in fermentation medium.

4 . The biological leaching reagent of claim 1 , wherein the growth by-products are selected from biosurfactants, enzymes, proteins, peptides, amino acids and solvents.

5 . The biological leaching reagent of claim 1 , wherein the growth by-products are biosurfactants selected from glycolipids, cellobiose lipids, lipopeptides, flavolipids, phospholipids, lipoproteins, lipopolysaccharide-protein complexes, and polysaccharide-protein-fatty acid complexes.

6 . The biological leaching reagent of claim 5 , wherein the biosurfactants comprise glycolipids and/or lipopeptides.

7 . The biological leaching reagent of claim 1 , enhanced by an additional yeast or bacterial culture, wherein the additional yeast or bacterial culture comprises a biosurfactant-producing yeast or bacteria.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the additional yeast or bacterial culture comprises Wickerhamomyces anomalus, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Pseudozyma aphidis, Pichia guilliermondii, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus amyliliquefaciens, Bacillus licheniformis , or Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

9 . The biological leaching reagent of claim 1 , enhanced by an additional microbial culture, wherein the additional microbial culture comprises a microorganism capable of solubilizing metal particles from ore.

10 . The biological leaching reagent of claim 9 , wherein the additional microbial culture comprises Cupriavidus metallidurans.

11 . A method for extracting minerals and/or metals from ore, the method comprising:
obtaining ore comprising one or more minerals and/or metals and gangue; crushing, grinding, micronizing or pulverizing the ore into smaller ore particles; applying a biological leaching reagent of claim 1 to the ore particles; mixing the biological leaching reagent with the ore particles to form a slurry; allowing the minerals and/or metals to separate from the ore; and collecting the minerals and/or metals from the slurry.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the mixing occurs continuously.

13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the separated minerals and/or metals are dispersed and/or float in the slurry as solution.

14 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the separated minerals and/or metals are sequestered by the cells of the microorganism of the biological leaching reagent.

15 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the minerals and/or metals are collected from the slurry via gravity, froth flotation, electrostatic separation, magnetic separation, wet size screening, dry screening or cyclone classifying.

16 . The method of claim 11 , used to extract gold, silver, copper, cobalt, lithium, zinc and/or nickel from the ore.

17 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the ore is in the form of mine tailings.

18 . The method of claim 11 , wherein contacting the ore with the biological leaching reagent comprises placing the ore particles into a tank, column, vat or pool and pouring the biological leaching reagent into the tank, column, vat or pool.

Assignees

• Locus Solutions Ipco Llc

Inventors

• Farmer Sean
• Alibek Ken
• Ibragimova Samal

Classifications

• C12N1/20

  Bacteria; Culture media therefor · CPC title

• C12N1/16

  Yeasts; Culture media therefor · CPC title

• C22B26/12

  Obtaining lithium · CPC title

• C22B23/0407

  Leaching processes · CPC title

• C22B19/20

  Obtaining zinc otherwise than by distilling · CPC title