Short to say, the mining company Talvivaara seems to have taken too wide steps when scaling up the bioheapleaching process for the recovery of nickel in Kainuu. Growth conditions in heaps differ too much from the lab-scale test conditions of Helsinki University trials, performed on 80's. I have written an article in some Finnish newspapers about these issues and the need to improve analytical control of the biotechnical process. Biotechnical step, definitely, is the core process of metal production in Talvivaara. When bacteria do not feel well, very few nickel will be oxidized into the form of soluble cations.
Here is a link to my article, published in KESKISUOMALAINEN, Jyväskylä, 25.11.2013 (in Finnish):
http://www.ksml.fi/mielipide/mielipidekirjoitukset/talvivaaran-kaivoksen-ydinprosessi-on-biotekniikkaa/1721154
I have also discussed with HELGE V. KEITEL about the chances to apply wireless growth condition control into heaps. We'll see this issue a promising one for e.g. Finnish institutes and enterprises of environmental and process analytics.
“The way we're really going to grow the economy is to invest in people, to invest in innovation, to have the government put money in the kind of research that will create the new high-technology, BIOTECHNOLGY industries that will create millions of new jobs.” - Joseph Lieberman-
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