BIODEFOSFORIZACIÓN DE MINERALES DE HIERRO

Abstract

Mixed heterotrophic cultures, pure cultures of the bacterium Burkholderia caribiensis FeGL03 and pure cultures of the fungus Aspergillus niger HNA-1 were used to reduce the amount of phosphorus present in iron ore samples from Minas Gerais, Brazil. All these microorganisms were autochthonous to the ore being treated. It was found, by means of shake flask experiments, that the pure cultures of the fungus A. niger were able to extract up to 51 % of the phosphorus originally present in the ore. In addition, our results show that decreasing the ore particle size greatly contributed to improve dephosphorization degree reached and also that glucose and malt extract are the nutrients which offered the best biobeneficiation performance. Finally, scanning electron microscopy analysis permitted to depict the biogeochemical phenomena involved in the biobeneficiation process of the ore.