This new millennium belongs to biotechnology. Rapid progress is being made in minerals processing based on biological principles. Microorganisms can play a beneficial role in all facets of minerals processing, from mining to waste disposal and management. Biohydrometallurgical extraction of metals from a wide variety of ores is being commercially practiced all over the world--in Canada, the United States, Russia, South America, Australia, and Europe. Mineral Biotechnology: Microbial Aspects of Mineral Beneficiation, Metal Extraction, and Environmental Control provides the technical knowledge necessary to compete in this arena by presenting specific, detailed technologies and real world case studies. The interactions among biotechnology, metals, and minerals are relevant to a number of emerging interdisciplinary areas such as biogenesis and biomineralization; biomaterials processing and biomimetics; ceramics and biomedical engineering; biomineral beneficiation; bioleaching; biocorrosion, biofouling, and biodeterioration; and bioenvironmental control.