Abstract: It has become increasingly more difficult to recover low grade phosphate ores by traditional mineral processing methods while bioleaching process has been increasingly more widely used in wet metallurgy field thanks to its features of economics and environmental friendliness.However, bioleaching is little used in processing phosphate ores both in and outside China.In this study, strains of acidithiobaciilus thiooxidans and acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans were collected from the acid drainage of a coal mine in Anhui Province.Ultraviolet irradiation and Microwave inducement were applied to the bacterial cultivation of strains of Acidithiobacillus that can produce more sulfuric acid.The leaching of low grade phosphate ore from Zhongxiang, Hubei, China by the mutagenic microbe can achieve better leaching effect and the addition of Tween series surfactants to the bioleaching process can further improve the phosphorous leaching rate.

Key words: Bioleaching, Acidithiobacillus, Phosphate ore