Bauxite Mining Waste Pollution and Its Sustainable Management through Bioremediation

Abstract

The potential to subsidize the development of areas furnished with ores is essential for producing supplies, services, and infrastructure that get a better social life quality. Bauxite mining is the foremost open-cast mining and bauxite is the only material for manufacturing aluminum metals and is used as a prominent industrial raw material. Demand for bauxite has grown enormously because of increased population and economic growth as it is required for the production of many other metals. A huge amount of bauxite residues are produced during aluminum production from bauxite ore which tremendously influences the environment and public health. Production of waste residues from bauxite ore leads to diminishing soil productivity and influences farming food yields. Soil and water are also contaminated by the addition of heavy metals, iron oxide, and aluminum hydroxide, which can prejudice public health. Microorganisms degrade and detoxify the pollutants into a nontoxic organic form that is helpful to the environment. Bioremediation has been a promising method to remove contaminants by using microorganisms. This enables the adsorption, accumulation, degradation, and utilization of emerging contaminants as nutrient resources by microbial communities for their sustenance. Sustainable management of bauxite mining and recovery of metals from wastes are mainly indispensable in this high time. This review article evaluates the effect of bauxite waste residues on the environment and its consequences on human health; it also emphasizes the biological remediation strategy for the remediation of contaminated mining areas and focuses on the sustainable management of bauxite waste residues.

Keywords:

• Bauxite mining
• waste residues
• bioremediation
• sustainable management

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).