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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microbiological Chemistry and Geomicrobiology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1467408
This article is part of the Research Topic Exploring Processes and Applications of Metal-Microbe Interactions View all 5 articles

Bioleaching lithium from jadarite, spodumene and lepidolite using Acidiothiobacillus ferrooxidans

Provisionally accepted
Rebecca D. Kirk Rebecca D. Kirk 1,2*Laura Newsome Laura Newsome 1,2Carmen Falagan Carmen Falagan 3Karen A. Hudson-Edwards Karen A. Hudson-Edwards 1,2
  • 1 Environment and Sustainability Institute, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, England, United Kingdom
  • 2 Camborne School of Mines, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, England, United Kingdom
  • 3 University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, South East England, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Lithium (Li) is becoming increasingly important due to its use in clean technologies that are required for the transition to Net Zero. Although acidophilic bioleaching has been used to recover metals from a wide range of deposits, its potential to recover Li has not yet been fully explored. Here we used a model Fe(II)- and S-oxidising bacterium, Acidiothiobacillus ferrooxidans, to extract Li from three different lithium minerals. Bioleaching of Li from the aluminosilicate minerals lepidolite (K(Li,Al)3(Al,Si,Rb)4O10(F,OH)2) and spodumene (LiAl(Si2O6) was slow, with only up to 14 % (around 12 mg/L) of Li released over 30 days. By contrast, At. ferrooxidans accelerated Li leaching from a Li-bearing borosilicate clay (jadarite, LiNaB3SiO7OH) by over 50 % (over 120 mg/L) in 21 days of leaching, and consistently enhanced Li release throughout the experiment compared to the uninoculated control. Fe(II) present in the jadarite-bearing clay acted as an electron donor. Chemical leaching of Li from jadarite using H2SO4 was most effective, releasing around 75 % (180 mg/L) of Li, but required more acid than bioleaching for pH control. Kinetic modelling was unable to replicate the data for jadarite bioleaching after primary abiotic leaching stages, suggesting additional processes beyond chemical leaching were responsible for the release of Li. Biofilm formation and flocculation of sediment occurred exclusively in the experiments with At. ferrooxidans and jadarite. A new crystalline phase, tentatively identified as boric acid, was observed to form after acid leaching of jadarite. Overall, the results demonstrate the potential for acidophilic bioleaching to recover Li from jadarite, with relevance for other Li-bearing clay deposits.

    Keywords: bioleaching, Lithium, Critical minerals, Metal recovery, Iron bio-oxidation

    Received: 19 Jul 2024; Accepted: 07 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kirk, Newsome, Falagan and Hudson-Edwards. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Rebecca D. Kirk, Environment and Sustainability Institute, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, TR10 9FE, England, United Kingdom

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.