Enhancement of arsenic mobility by indigenous bacteria from mine tailings as response to organic supply

Arsenic leaching by indigenous bacteria in abandoned Au–Ag mine tailings which contained approximately 3200 mg/kg of As was investigated after supply of various organic substrates. Sequential extraction analysis designed to determine the mode of As occurrence in the tailings revealed that most As (90%) was closely associated with the Fe fraction. When glucose was supplied as a C source, indigenous bacteria significantly enhanced the extent of As release from the tailings into solution under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Anaerobic indigenous bacteria leached more amount of As from the tailings than aerobes. Highly positive correlation between the extracted amounts of As and Fe implied that microbial dissolution of Fe(III)-oxides, whether it was ligand- and proton-promoted dissolution or reductive dissolution, might be dominantly responsible for the As release. Bacterial strains which were resistant to up to 100 mM As(V) was aerobically isolated from the tailings. One of the isolates appeared to reduce some aqueous As(V) to likely As(III) in a batch type experiment, which indicated that indigenous bacteria can mediate the electrochemical speciation and thus the mobility of As in the tailings. The results suggest that indigenous bacteria in As-contaminated tailings can increase As mobility from the solid media when microbially available organic substrates are supplied, and thus enhance the risk of As dispersion to nearby soil, sediment and groundwater.