Microbial Recovery of Manganese using <i>Staphylococcus Epidermidis</i>

Abstract

Manganese minerals are widely distributed throughout the globe. The most important industrial uses of Mn are in the manufacture of steel, non-ferrous alloys, carbon-zinc batteries and some chemical reagents. Microbial recovery of manganese from low grade manganese ores using bioleaching was investigated in this paper. A bacterial strain, Staphylococcus epidermidis (MTCC-435) was collected from microbial type culture collection, IMTECH Chandigarh and used for the experiment. The experimental results for bioleaching with S. epidermidis showed that under pH 5.5, particle size –150 μm, pulp density 10%, temperature 35℃ and agitation 200 rpm, about 80% of Mn was recovered within 20 days of incubation.