Microbial ecology of Río Tinto, a natural extreme acidic environment of biohydrometallurgical interest

Abstract Rio Tinto (Iberian Pyritic Belt, SW Spain) is a natural extreme acidic environment with a rather constant acidic pH and a high concentration of heavy metals. The Tinto ecosystem is under the control of iron. The geomicrobiological characterization of Rio Tinto has been performed to unravel some basic questions of biohydrometallurgical interest. The methodologies developed for this study have been applied successfully to monitor different bioleaching processes.

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