Journal of the Korean Society of Mineral and Energy Resources Engineers ISSN:2288-0291(Print) 2288-2790(Online) 한국자원공학회지

Biometallurgical processes have been employed globally in the removal and recovery of valuable metals from industrial wastes. The toxicity of the mine waste contaminants can be abated by biosorption, bioremediation and biotransformation. In these conventional processes microorganisms play a potential role to mobilize the heavy metals and thus help in reducing toxicity. Metals like Hg, Cr, As, Se and Te can be transformed or volatilized by methanogenic bacteria. Bioleaching also has an attractive alternative in recovering metals from different industrial wastes. In these processes, metals like Zn, Cu, Al, Ni, Pb, Mn and Fe can be recovered from mine drainage, waste sludge, river sediments and electronic scrap. The present review describes different biological processes which are applied to treat industrial wastes.