Bacterial and Archaeal Communities in Recycling Effluents from a Bauxite Flotation Plant

Recycling effluent has become a bottleneck and an environmental risk associated with the regular production of bauxite via flotation and the sustainable development of the aluminum industry in China. To find a practical direction for biotreatment, the bacterial and archaeal communities in recycling effluents containing concentrate and tailings from bauxite flotation plants were investigated by a metagenomic sequencing method in association with the evaluated geochemical properties. The results showed that Paracoccus , Desulfomicrobium , Exiguobacterium , Tindallia , Ercella and Anoxynatronum were the primary bacterial genera and Methanothrix , Methanobacterium , Nitrososphaera and Methanosarcina were the dominant archaeal genera. Upon combining the microbial diversity and the geochemical properties of the two sample types, the microbial community containing Desulfomicrobium , Paracoccus , Tindallia , Methanobacterium , Methanothrix and Nitrososphaera was better adapted to the biodegradation of flotation collectors, and the microbial community consisting of Paracoccus , Exiguobacterium , Methanothrix and Methanobacterium was more efficient at hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) biodegradation. In addition, a large proportion of unclassified OTUs has indicated that recycling effluent is a worthy resource for isolating new strains from the Firmicutes phylum.