What is Bioleaching and BacTechs Commercial Process Technology?
The terms bioleaching, biooxidation and bacterial oxidation are all used to describe the process for metal extraction that harness specific types of bacteria that degrade sulphide minerals naturally. BacTech’s technology takes bacteria cultured from the environment and applies them in a way that speeds up the natural process of sulphide degradation by up to 500,000 times. There is no “re-engineering” or manipulation of these natural bacteria, but BacTech uses its’ knowledge and experience of how to isolate and apply the bacteria, and create the perfect environment for them to operate effectively. This converts a slow natural process into a commercial economic process for metal extraction, while protecting the environment by not using the alternative techniques such as roasting. The only byproduct of bioleaching is an inert iron or iron arsenate precipitate, which is environmentally benign.
