Microbial Community with Potential for Metal Release Isolated from Palca Mine Tailings Pond in Peru

The improvement of microbial characterization has increased the comprehension of microbial population and their ability in the microbiological metal dissolution. Bioleaching processes have been expanded to use microorganisms for the recovery of metals from ores and wastes. This study introduces Palca mine tailings pond in Peru which turned into acid mine drainage (AMD). AMD is a source of microbial communities whose microorganisms may support the aqueous extractive metallurgy for metal recovery. Four samples of AMD were collected from different locations and the elemental characterization showed concentrations of metals, such as Cu, Zn, Al, Mn, and Fe. The pH of the samples showed variation between 1.9 - 6.8. Twenty-one microorganisms were isolated and selected according the cell morphology. 16s rRNA gene sequences identified five species of which three belong to the bacterial kingdom and two to the Fungi kingdom. Two of the bacterial species were ferrous ion oxidizing bacteria, identified as Acidithiobacillus ferriphilus and Acidithiobacillus ferridurans;and the other one a ferric ion reducing bacteria identified as Acidiphilium acidophilum. The fungi species identified were Rhodotorula sinensis and Exophiala xenobiotica, a filamentous fungus isolated for the first time from an AMD.

Synthesis of intracellular cobalt ferrite nanocrystals by extreme acidophilic archaea Ferroplasma thermophilum

Ferroplasma thermophilum,a sort of extreme acidophilic archaea,which can synthesize intracellular cobalt ferrite nanocrystals,is investigated in this study.The nanocrystals were analyzed with ultrathin sections and transmission electron microscope,with the size of 20−60 nm,the number of more than 30 in each cell at average,which indicated that F.thermophilum can synthesize intracellular nanocrystals and also belongs to high-yield nanocrystals-producing strain.Intriguingly,the nanocrystals contain ferrite and cobalt characterized by EDS X-ray analysis,suggesting that both cobalt and ferrite are potentially contributed to the formation of nanocrystals.Moreover,under the different energy source culture conditions of FeSO4 and CuFeS2,the size and the morphology of the nanocrystals are different.It was also found that the higher initial Fe availability leads to an induced synthesis of larger nanocrystals and the lower oxidation-reduction potential(ORP)leads to an induced effect on the synthesis of nanocrystals with abnormal unhomogeneous size,which suggested that the higher initial Fe availability and the lower oxidation-reduction potential lead to a higher uptake efficiency of iron ions of F.thermophilum by iron and ORP gradient culture.