The increasing demand of manganese in the industries and various hindrances in its production from low grade ores by conventional method has made it imperative for researchers around the world to develop a method of manganese extraction from low grade ores that is both environment friendly and economical. Bioleaching has shown significant potential in manganese extraction and efficiencies of extraction have been found to be 70-98% with the help of various bacteria and fungi.
This study focuses on extraction of manganese with the help of mixed bacterial strains that have been collected from their natural anaerobic environment. The extraction of manganese from reagent grade manganese dioxide and high grade manganese ore has been studied over 130 days at room temperature and pH around 5. Highest concentrations of dissolved manganese have been found to be 866.7 mg Mn/L for reagent grade manganese dioxide and 545.7 mg Mn/L for ore grade manganese
