Pecent Situation and Prospect of Copper Hydrometallurgical Process-Bioleaching Method

The effect of bacteria in copper hydrometallurgical process is indicated. The developing situation and application prospect in bioleaching of copper minerial in the recent twenty years is reviewed. The variety of bacteria, the leaching mechanism, the temperature condition of bioleaching, the structure of leaching bed, the grainsize of mineral and the mode of oxygen supplying etc,are introduced.And the producing method and scale of copper bioleaching in America, Chile and Australia, are emphasized. The situation of copper bioleaching in our country is introduced at the same time. The spareness of copper in our country determines that the utilization of poor grade and diyyionlt dressing ore are the direction for exploiting copper resource , so the copper bioleaching process possesses broad application prospeat.