Biological processing of scrap metal, household waste and/or industrial waste for the isolation of heavy metals

A process of isolating or enriching a heavy metal present in a liquid medium, comprising

• a step of incubating a suspension containing (i) particulate scrap metal, household waste and/or industrial waste containing a heavy metal in elemental form and (ii) biomass comprising a bacterium, or a combination of two or more bacteria, capable of binding the heavy metal;
• a step of separating the biomass having bound heavy metal from the suspension of the previous step;
• and
• a step of isolating the heavy metal from the biomass separated in the previous step;
• wherein the heavy metal is selected from ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, silver, osmium, iridium, platinum, gold, and/or rare earth metals;
• and wherein the bacterium, or the combination of two or more bacteria, is selected from the following species:
• Pseudochrobactrum asaccharolyticum and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia.