Abstract: Due to the gradual exploitation of minerals and the increasing shortage of high-quality mineral resources, the separation and recovery of "poor, fine and miscellaneous" minerals need to be solved urgently, and people's requirements for mineral processing technology are higher and higher. Some special microorganisms themselves or their metabolites can dissolve the ions in minerals or change the surface properties of minerals. Moreover, compared with traditional mineral processing reagents and leaching agents, microorganisms have the advantages of lower cost and less environmental pollution. Therefore, the micro biological flotation and microbial metallurgy technology has been developed rapidly. This paper introduces the research progress of bioleaching, oxidation, decomposition, adsorption, chemical reaction and cell surface chemistry of microorganisms at home and abroad.