9701_w07_qp_4
A paper of Chemistry, 9701
Questions:
10
Year:
2007
Paper:
4
Variant:
0

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Use 10 Read the following article about the use of bacteria in mining, and then answer the questions that follow it. The discovery that bacteria could ʻmineʼ metals for us was made in Spain. The Rio Tinto mine, in the southwest corner of Spain, was originally mined for copper by the Romans some 2,000 years ago. In 1752, some mining engineers looked over the mine to see if it could possibly be re-opened. They noticed streams of a blue-green liquid running from spoil heaps of the processed rock that lay around the mine. When this blue-green liquid ran over iron, it coated the iron with a brown film. The brown film was metallic copper. There was still some copper left in the spoil heaps. At the time, everybody thought that the copper was being dissolved in the liquid through a simple chemical reaction. But in 1947, US scientists discovered that the copper was being ʻminedʼ by a bacterium called Thiobacillus ferrooxidans. The bacterium Thiobacillus ferrooxidans lives off the chemical energy trapped in metal sulphides. In the ore, the copper exists as copper sulphide. The bacteria gain energy by converting the copper sulphide to copper sulphate, which is then excreted. At the same time, they absorb the difference in energy in the chemical bonds. These bacteria can also obtain energy in similar reactions with ores of zinc, lead and uranium. Use the Data Booklet to explain why the blue-green liquid coated the iron with copper. Write an equation for the reaction. Suggest two reasons why this method of extracting copper might be useful for ore containing only a small percentage of copper. Suggest one disadvantage of using bacteria rather than traditional mining and smelting methods. Examiner’s Use In conventional copper mining, the ore will typically contain 0.5 – 2.0% copper, which gives an idea of what a valuable resource copper is. The ore from a particular mine contains 0.75% copper, and 150 000 tonnes of ore are mined each year. From this ore about 60% of the copper is extracted, and the remainder is left in the ‘spoil heaps’ of processed ore. What mass of copper is extracted each year? If the use of bacteria can recover a further 17% of copper from the spoil heaps, what is the extra mass of copper produced? Suggest why bacteria are unlikely to be used in the extraction of aluminium. Metals like copper and zinc from abandoned mines can contaminate ground-water. Suggest one way of removing these contaminants.