Fadwa Jroundi, Cristina Povedano-Priego, María Pinel-Cabello, Michael Descostes, Pierre Grizard, Bayaarma Purevsan, Mohamed L Merroun
Uranium (U) roll-front deposits constitute a valuable source for an economical extraction by in situ recovery (ISR) mining. Such technology may induce changes in the subsurface microbiota, raising questions about the way their activities could build a functional ecosystem in such extreme environments (i.e.: oligotrophy and high SO4 concentration and salinity). Additionally, more information is needed to dissipate the doubts about the microbial role in the genesis of such U orebodies. A U roll-front deposit hosted in an aquifer driven system (in Zoovch Ovoo, Mongolia), intended for mining by acid ISR, was previously explored and showed to be governed by a complex bacterial diversity, linked to the redox zonation and the geochemical conditions...
December 1, 2022: Science of the Total Environment