ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,577,634, issued on March 17, was assigned to TECHNOLOGICAL RESOURCES PTY Ltd. (Melbourne, Australia).
"Microbial-assisted heap leaching" was invented by Daniel Arthur Kittelty (Glenroy, Australia), Ralph Peter Hackl (Hope Island, Australia), Yaqiong Ren (Southbank, Australia) and Paul Leslie Brown (Kiama, Australia).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Microbial-assisted heap leaching of fragments or agglomerates of fragments of copper-containing sulfidic ores, such as chalcopyrite ores, and copper-containing sulfidic waste materials is disclosed. A heap leaching method includes controlling the sulfate concentration in a leach liquor. When hea...