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Topic · Biomedical Engineering

Metal Extraction and Bioleaching

Metal Extraction and Bioleaching is a research topic within Biomedical Engineering. Science Explorer counts 34k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on biohydrometallurgical processes for extracting and recovering metals from ores and waste materials. It covers topics such as bioleaching, microbial communities in metal recovery, oxidation mechanisms of sulfide minerals, acid mine drainage, vanadium extraction, sulfur metabolism, and the application of microbial ecology in metallurgical processes.

  • Bioleaching
  • Microbial Communities
  • Metal Recovery
  • Sulfide Minerals
  • Acid Mine Drainage
  • Metallurgy
  • Microbial Ecology
  • Oxidation Mechanism
  • Vanadium Extraction
  • Sulfur Metabolism
Research works
34k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
3.3k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+29%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
59% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Metal Extraction and Bioleaching

Which countries lead Metal Extraction and Bioleaching research?

By volume, China and Russia publish the most (3.2k and 449 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 3.2k works
  2. 2 Russia 449 works
  3. 3 United States 400 works
  4. 4 India 300 works
  5. 5 Australia 225 works
  6. 6 Canada 191 works
  7. 7 Indonesia 184 works
  8. 8 Germany 156 works
  9. 9 Iran 150 works
  10. 10 Japan 147 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 59.3%Russia: 8.3%United States: 7.4%India: 5.5%6 others listed: 19.5%59%largest
China3,206 · 59.3%Russia449 · 8.3%United States400 · 7.4%India300 · 5.5%6 others listed1,053 · 19.5%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Metal Extraction and Bioleaching research?

By volume in 2022-now, Central South University publishes the most Metal Extraction and Bioleaching research, followed by Kunming University of Science and Technology and Russian Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Central South UniversityChina 367 works
  2. 2 Kunming University of Science and TechnologyChina 283 works
  3. 3 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 203 works
  4. 4 Northeastern UniversityChina 178 works
  5. 5 University of Science and Technology BeijingChina 168 works
  6. 6 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 129 works
  7. 7 China University of Mining and TechnologyChina 72 works
  8. 8 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 57 works
  9. 9 Wuhan University of Science and TechnologyChina 55 works
  10. 10 Jiangxi University of Science and TechnologyChina 51 works

Who are the leading researchers in Metal Extraction and Bioleaching?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Metal Extraction and Bioleaching include Michaël Grätzel, Jun Wang and Kostya S. Novoselov.

  1. 1 Michaël Grätzel Switzerland 458k citations
  2. 2 Jun Wang China 340k citations
  3. 3 Kostya S. Novoselov United Kingdom 331k citations
  4. 4 Kenneth W. Kinzler United States 253k citations
  5. 5 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  6. 6 George M. Sheldrick Germany 220k citations
  7. 7 Lei Jiang China 214k citations
  8. 8 Guangming Zeng China 204k citations
  9. 9 Mercouri G. Kanatzidis United States 196k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Metal Extraction and Bioleaching?

The most cited paper in Metal Extraction and Bioleaching is "The absolute energy positions of conduction and valence bands of selected semiconducting minerals" (Yong Xu, Martin A. A. Schoonen, 2000), with 3,869 citations. Next come "The ecology and biotechnology of sulphate-reducing bacteria" (2,481) and "Community structure and metabolism through reconstruction of microbial genomes from the environment" (2,466).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The absolute energy positions of conduction and valence bands of selected semiconducting minerals Yong Xu, Martin A. A. Schoonen · American Mineralogist Mar 2000 3,869
2 The ecology and biotechnology of sulphate-reducing bacteria Gerard Muyzer, Alfons J. M. Stams · Nature Reviews Microbiology ReviewOpen access 7 May 2008 2,481
3 Community structure and metabolism through reconstruction of microbial genomes from the environment Gene W. Tyson, Jarrod Chapman, Philip Hugenholtz et al. · Nature Feb 2004 2,466
4 Acid mine drainage remediation options: a review David Barrie Johnson, Kevin B. Hallberg · The Science of The Total Environment 28 Oct 2004 2,196
5 Metallurgical recovery of metals from electronic waste: A review Jirang Cui, Lifeng Zhang · Journal of Hazardous Materials 9 Feb 2008 1,773
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Metal Extraction and Bioleaching research done?

The largest centres of Metal Extraction and Bioleaching research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Changsha (China), Kunming (China) and Shenyang (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Freiberg.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 588 works
  2. 2 ChangshaChina 410 works
  3. 3 KunmingChina 351 works
  4. 4 ShenyangChina 204 works
  5. 5 WuhanChina 148 works
  6. 6 MoscowRussia 140 works
  7. 7 TehranIran 87 works
  8. 8 ChengduChina 81 works
  9. 9 YekaterinburgRussia 79 works
  10. 10 GuangzhouChina 74 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. FreibergDE · 23.6 works37×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Metal Extraction and Bioleaching than the world average.

See Metal Extraction and Bioleaching on the map

Where is the best place to study Metal Extraction and Bioleaching?

Among universities, judged by research, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Central South University and Northeastern University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 18.71%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Chengdu University o…Kunming University o…Northeastern Univers…Central South Univer…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Kunming University of Science and TechnologyChina 70.019.6%76.5×283 +153.4%
2Central South UniversityChina 69.114.7%28.9×367 +55.8%
3Northeastern UniversityChina 63.015.1%30.2×178 +39.4%
4Chengdu University of TechnologyChina 60.622.4%16.9×43 +224.7%
5University of Science and Technology BeijingChina 59.212.6%32.9×168 +71.7%
6University of Newcastle AustraliaAustralia 56.524.7%6.0×10 +407.3%
7Guangxi UniversityChina 54.725.3%6.2×25 +100.3%
8China University of Mining and TechnologyChina 53.912.4%13.9×72 +71.5%
9China University of Geosciences (Beijing)China 53.519.8%11.2×21 +106.4%
10Zhengzhou UniversityChina 53.420.5%4.1×33 +210.0%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Metal Extraction and Bioleaching, country by country

Is Metal Extraction and Bioleaching research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 29% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Metal Extraction and Bioleaching.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Metal Extraction and Bioleaching as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.032% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Metal Extraction and Bioleaching0.035% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Metal Extraction and Bioleaching over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Metal Extraction and Bioleaching10.1% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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