Abstract

The project tackles the problem of using seawater in mineral processing of copper sulfide ore. The main issues that the mineral processing industry has to face when using seawater is the high consumption of lime to increase pH and the consequent drop in recovery of molybdenite. The project proposes the use of bacteria, and all the knowledge that has been generated in bioleaching, to implement a so-called bioflotation process where bacteria will depress selectively pyrite without using lime to increase pH and without affecting copper and molybdenum sulfide flotation.