R&D&I to obtain cobalt from mining tailings through bioleaching in a circular economy process with low environmental impact and high economic potential.
Chile has the potential to position itself as the world’s third largest producer of cobalt by extracting this critical metal, essential in the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles and electronic devices, from mining tailings, which would make the country a major player in the electromobility and green energy industry.
To achieve this, the Cobalto Verde© project is developing a bioleaching process using microorganisms specialized in obtaining the so-called “blue gold” in an environmentally friendly way and with less use of chemicals and water.
By obtaining cobalt from tailings, we seek to promote more sustainable mining, obtain value from what is currently waste, and eliminate one of the most significant environmental risks of tailings.
Cobalto Verde© is an ANID Advanced Technologies 2023-2027 Fondef project, awarded to the Center for Systems Biotechnology at the Andrés Bello University (CSB UNAB) together with the Advanced Mining Technology Center (AMTC) and the Department of Geology of the University of Chile, in collaboration with the mining company Pucobre as a strategic partner.
Learn more about the project and the team behind it:
To recover cobalt from tailings, biomining microorganisms remove pyrite from the environment, a mineral that can generate acid mine drainage (AMD) when it comes into contact with water and oxygen. Pyrite is also a mineral that carries a variety of metals and metalloids that are potentially harmful to the environment and health, which are solubilized in ADM processes. Without the presence of pyrite in tailings, this risk of contamination is reduced, which can affect farmland, groundwater, and the health of people and wildlife.
Furthermore, the bioleaching process uses less water and chemicals than conventional processes, with the consequent benefit for resource sustainability.
The use of microorganisms to recover metals such as cobalt from tailings leaves the treated waste free of sulfides and heavy metals, opening up opportunities to reuse it as aggregate in construction materials such as concrete and pavement, or to improve soil in land reclamation, among other applications. In this way, a material considered waste is transformed into a reusable resource with added value that also reduces the extraction of natural aggregates from riverbeds and natural watercourses, which are intensively depleted for these purposes.
In 2024, Chilean standard NCh 163:2024 “Aggregates for mortars and concrete – Requirements” was launched, approved by the National Institute of Standardization, which allows the use of recycled and artificial aggregates created from tailings and slag.
Bioleaching technology to recover cobalt from tailings will enable the diversification of the country’s mining production matrix by producing a metal that is essential for the battery industry and electromobility. It is estimated that with the resources contained in tailings, Chile could become the world’s second or third largest producer of cobalt, offering a sustainable supply and environmentally friendly production.
The bioleaching technology being developed as part of the Cobalto Verde project and the process of identifying consortia of biomining microorganisms that researchers are carrying out in tailings in northern Chile have the potential to be applied to the recovery of other valuable metals that are currently hidden in these mining wastes, in addition to cobalt. Among these, nickel and copper stand out as the most commercially attractive, although zinc, cadmium, molybdenum, and even gold and silver are also present.