THE LEACHING BEHAVIOUR OF VARIOUS ZINC SULPHIDE MINERALS WITH THREE THIOBACILLUS SPECIES
Average rating
Cast your vote
You can rate an item by clicking the amount of stars they wish to award to this item.
When enough users have cast their vote on this item, the average rating will also be shown.
Star rating
Your vote was cast
Thank you for your feedback
Thank you for your feedback
Issue Date
1977Submitted date
2020-06
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The availability of high-grade specimens of sphalerite, wurtzite and marmatite prompted a comparative study of the leaching rates of these minerals in the presence of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, T. thiooxidans and T. thioparus. In this preliminary study, samples of the finely-ground minerals, of equivalent surface area, were subjected to attack by populations of equal magnitude of each of the three bacterial species in shake flasks at 30 C. The microorganisms were acclimatised to the particular substrates. The results indicate that (1) Wurtzite is much more slowly degraded than marmatite or sphalerite by all three organisms. (ii) Marmatite is leached more rapidly by T. ferrooxidans and T, thiooxidans than sphalerite, in both the presence and absence of soluble iron. (iii) Iron-free synthetic zinc sulphide is leached more rapidly by T. thiooxidans than by T. ferrooxidans or T. thioparus. The hexagonal crystalline structure of zinc sulphide in wurtzite appears to be more recalcitrant to microbial degradation than the cubical form of sphalerite, and the substitution of iron for some of the zinc in the marmatitic form of zinc sulphide appears to greatly facilitate biodegradation.Affiliation
School of Biological Technology, University of New South Wales, Kensington, New South Wales, AustraliaType
Book chapterconference paper
Language
enCollections
The following license files are associated with this item:
- Creative Commons
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International