Salt-tolerant bioleaching microorganism is a kind of microorganism that could survive in the salt-containing environments during bioleaching process. It is found that these species show great application potential in biometallurgy when freshwater resources are scarce. This paper systematically reviews current knowledge and understanding of taxonomic diversity, the salt-adapted mechanisms and the application status of salt-tolerant microorganisms, aiming to provide more information for the research and application of salt-tolerant microorganisms.