Abstract:The severe current situation facing to minerals processing is that the most minerals are characterized by low-grade, being complex and very hard to deal with. It is necessary to find a new way to solve these questions. Nowadays, biohydrometallurgy draw more and more attention because of its simple process, low cost and kindness to environment. However, the lack of suitable bacteria and hard research on the mechanisms between the bacteria and ores or bacteria in gene level result in the low efficiency and poor yield of the target metal in bioleaching. Therefore, the understanding of the microbial community structure and function in the bioleaching systems is very important for the optimization of microbial community by controlling the operating conditions in bioleaching systems, thus enhancing the leaching rate. A review is given on the achievements and progress related to the study on microbial community structure and function in sulfide ore bioleaching systems made in our research group.

Key words: bioleaching; biohydrometallurgy; community structure; community function