Microbial Recovery of Manganese Using Staphylococcus epidermidis

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 ̊C and agitation 200 rpm, about 80% of Mn was recovered within 20 days of incubation.