Genetic manipulation is a powerful and unique tool which can bring about drastic changes in the physical,chemical and biological properties of an organism. Bioleaching as a process is complicated and using manipulated organisms is not easy to carry out.Instead of genetically manipulating the bacteria,inserting function specific sequence into viable species would reduce the contamination problem and also give rise to new species.
Genetically engineered consortia could be deployed in industrial heap and tank leaching operations to improve bioleaching and biooxidation processes. However, it is crucial to consider that the tailored consortia have to compete with other microbes and their associated consortia in the non-sterile leaching environment. Usually this is not too much of a problem as the fastest growing species is usually the one leading to increased leaching. Depending on the ore leached, however, in particular chalcopyrite ores, high redox potential, which is associated with dominant iron-oxidizing microbes such as Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans or Leptospirillum ferrooxidans is not practically a realistic strategy till day as the leaching process will decease and stall after an initial high rate of recovery.
With the advbancement of GE technology scientist would overcome the present stumbling blocks and the ability to design and manipulate microbial consortia may allow them to enhance mineral recovery in biomining processes beyond the yields observed with naturally occurring consortia.
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