The mining industry is facing one of the greatest challenges in its history: meeting the growing demand for metals driven by the energy transition and electrification, while significantly reducing its environmental impact.
This scenario requires more than incremental improvements. It demands new ways of thinking about resource extraction, processing, and utilization.
In this context, biomining emerges as a technological alternative with enormous potential. Using microorganisms enables more efficient metal extraction with lower energy consumption and reduced emissions, positioning it as a key tool for advancing a more sustainable mining industry aligned with circular economy principles
What is Biomining and Why Does It Matter?
Biomining encompasses a group of biotechnological processes that use microorganisms, mainly bacteria and fungi, to mobilize and recover metals from minerals and waste materials.
Its main mechanisms include:
- Bioleaching, where microorganisms directly dissolve metals such as copper, zinc, or nickel
- Biooxidation, which enables the liberation of encapsulated metals, such as gold in refractory ores
Both processes leverage the natural ability of certain microorganisms to interact with minerals, thereby generating chemical conditions that facilitate metal extraction.
Its relevance is significant: a substantial portion of the world’s copper and gold production already relies on these technologies, demonstrating that biomining has moved beyond the experimental stage and into a consolidated industrial solution.
Current Applications: Beyond Traditional Mining
One of the most interesting aspects of biomining is its versatility. Although its use began in primary mining, especially in copper sulfides and gold ores, it is now expanding into new areas of high strategic value.
Its main applications include:
- Low-grade ores, where it enables the economic viability of resources previously considered unprofitable
- Mining waste, such as tailings, slags, and waste dumps, which often contain significant metal concentrations
- Recovery from mining waters and drainage, contributing to environmental management
- Urban mining (e-waste), recovering copper, gold, and critical metals from electronic waste
- New resources, such as laterites, rare earth elements, and other key minerals for clean technologies
Particularly for waste materials, biomining offers a tangible opportunity: transforming environmental liabilities into sources of economic value while contributing to sustainability and operational efficiency.
Technological Advances and Implementation Challenges
The development of biomining has been driven by advances in biotechnology, such as genomics and metagenomics, which have enabled the identification and optimization of microbial consortia that are more efficient and resistant to extreme conditions.
This translates into:
- Greater tolerance to toxic metals
- Improved performance in complex environments
- Optimization of process kinetics
However, one of the main current challenges lies not in biology, but in engineering.
The industrial scale-up of these processes requires precise control of variables such as pH, aeration, oxygen transfer, and diffusion within heaps. In addition, the design of bioreactors and leaching systems remains a critical area for improving efficiency and reducing processing times.
Economic and regulatory barriers must also be addressed, along with the need to consolidate robust industrial case studies that promote broader adoption across the industry.
The Paradigm Shift: Waste as a Resource
Tailings, waste dumps, and slags represent both one of the greatest challenges and one of the greatest opportunities for modern mining. In Chile, there are hundreds of deposits containing significant amounts of valuable metals, including copper, nickel, rare earth elements, and cobalt.
This is where biomining plays a strategic role: it enables the recovery of value from these materials while reducing environmental liabilities and generating new sources of supply.
A concrete example of this approach is the Cobalto Verde project, led by the Center for Biotechnology Systems of the Universidad Andrés Bello in collaboration with the Universidad de Chile and industry partners.
This initiative aims to scale up cobalt recovery technology for tailings via bioleaching with specialized microbial consortia. The project has already achieved technological maturity levels that allow progress toward testing under near-industrial operating conditions.
What is truly relevant is not only the metal being recovered, but the broader approach: transforming waste into resources and advancing toward mining without environmental liabilities.
During our participation at the IMET Chile 2026 conference, in Pilar Parada’s presentation titled “Circular Biohydrometallurgy for Cobalt Recovery from Tailings,” it became evident that these types of solutions no longer belong exclusively to the academic sphere.
What was once research is now moving toward industrial scale-up.
The development of microbial consortia, bioreactor design, and validation under real-world operating conditions are helping to bridge the gap between laboratory and industry. However, the main challenge continues to be process engineering:
- Operational variable control
- Heap and leaching system design
- Integration with existing plants
This opens a clear opportunity for the industry: not only to adopt biomining, but also to optimize it.
Biomining as an Enabler of the Circular Economy
Beyond its technical efficiency, biomining stands out for its natural integration into circular economy strategies.
Its benefits are clear:
- Enables metal recovery from waste and secondary sources
- Reduces the need for virgin resource extraction
- Decreases the carbon footprint of processes
- Contributes to reducing environmental liabilities
In a context where the security of critical metal supply is becoming increasingly important, biomining positions itself as a strategic solution not only from an operational standpoint but also in terms of sustainability and ESG compliance.
Where Is the Opportunity for Industry?
Biomining raises a strategic question for mining companies:
Which currently underutilized assets could be transformed into new sources of value?
The answer is not unique, but it requires a structured approach:
- Identifying real opportunities in tailings and low-grade ores
- Evaluating their technical and economic feasibility
- Designing solutions adapted to each operation
- Efficiently integrating them into existing processes
Conclusion
Biomining represents far more than a technological innovation: it is a concrete opportunity to advance toward a more efficient, sustainable, and resilient mining industry.
Its capacity to valorize waste, optimize resources, and reduce environmental impacts positions it as a key tool in transforming the sector.
However, its large-scale consolidation will depend on the industry’s capacity to address engineering, scale-up, and regulatory challenges and to integrate these solutions into existing operational models.
In a scenario where pressure to produce more with lower environmental impact will continue to increase, biomining is not simply an alternative. It is increasingly becoming part of the solution.
From PMC’s perspective, biomining represents a concrete opportunity to create value for our clients, not only through technological innovation but through effective operational implementation. Incorporating these solutions requires far more than biotechnological knowledge: it demands a comprehensive approach that combines process engineering, techno-economic evaluation, risk management, and integration with existing assets.
In this context, PMC can support mining companies at different stages of adoption through:
- Identification of opportunities in low-grade ores, tailings, and waste materials with valorization potential
- Techno-economic evaluation of biomining solutions, considering CAPEX, OPEX, and operational risks
- Process design and optimization, addressing critical operational and scale-up variables
- Integration with existing plants, maximizing synergies with available infrastructure (e.g., SX-EW)
- Implementation support, from pilot testing to pre-industrial stages
Biomining is not a standardized solution. Each operation has unique challenges and opportunities, and this is where a technical, flexible, and results-oriented approach makes the difference.
We believe that the future of mining will not only depend on discovering new deposits, but also on making better use of what already exists. And along that path, well-designed and effectively implemented biomining can become a key enabler.
