Appeal No. 1998-1855 11
Application No. 08/459,537
agitated, air sparged tanks with the bacteria present. See column 3, lines 52-59.
Typically, the finely ground ore is slurried with water and fed to a series of bioleach
reactors. See column 5, lines 1-8. We find however that Hackl discloses that, “[i]n a
variation of the process, the material can be treated by conventional heap leach methods,
in which case the oxidation step would require 1-12 months to complete.” See column
5, lines 31-35. We find that Example 3 is directed to a conventional heap leach method.
In that example however, the sample of ore is placed in a column, initially saturated with
water and following acidification thereafter inoculated with a mixed bacterial culture. We
conclude that there is no suggestion or motivation to utilize particulates which comprise
less than 12% by weight moisture.
Krebs-Yuill likewise discloses a process for recovering at least one first metal from
a metal sulfide containing ore utilizing T. ferrooxidans in an amount effective to increase
the rate of liberating the first metal. See Abstract and column 4, lines 1-3 and column 5,
lines 24-31. We find that the process may be performed in a heap. See column 8, lines
58-60. We further find that, “[t]he ore and material particles are mixed with sufficient
aqueous acid (H SO ), and if desired, bacteria.” See column 9, lines 40-42. There is
2 4
however no guidance that the particulates comprise less than 12% by weight moisture.
Accordingly, there is no support for the examiner’s statement that the particles would
appear to contain less than 12% by weight moisture.
Based upon the above considerations, even if the examiner was correct in
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