Metagenomic exploration of microbial community in mine tailings of Malanjkhand copper project, India

Mine tailings from copper mines are considered as one of the sources of highly hazardous acid mine drainage (AMD) due to bio-oxidation of its sulfidic constituents. This study was designed to understand microbial community composition and potential for acid generation using samples from mine tailings of Malanjkhand copper project (MCP), India through 16S rRNA gene based amplicon sequencing approach (targeting V4 region). Three tailings samples (T1, T2 and T3) with varied physiochemical properties selected for the study revealed distinct microbial assemblages. Sample (T3) with most extreme nature (pH < 2.0) harbored Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi while the samples (T1 and T3) with slightly moderate nature (pH < 4.0 and > 3.0) exhibited abundance of Proteobacteria, Fimicutes, Actinobacteria and/or Nitrospirae. Metagenomic sequences are available under the BioProject ID PRJNA361456.