Bacterial leaching of a low grade copper ore in Guangdong

In order to recover the copper effectively from the low grade refractory copper ore in a mine in Guangdong, the bacterial leaching test was carried out. Under the leaching condition of temperature of 30 degrees, rotation speed of 200 rpm, initial pH value of 1.85, and ore grinding f ineness -0.074 mm accounted for 80 % , agitation leaching was applied to Thiobacillus ferrooxidans GZY -1 strain for 10 days, the copper leaching rate of the three different groups of pulp concentration reached 97.72 % , 92.42 % and 87.66 % respectively. The test results show that the GZY-1 strain can be highly effective in the leaching of copper in this low grade refractory copper ores.