Journal of Scientific & Industrial Research

Vol. 75, February 2016, pp. 120-123

Preparation of Phosphate Mine Tailings and Low Grade Rock Phosphate

enriched bio-fertilizer
S Babel1*, R S Chauhan1, N Ali2 and V Yadav3
1
University College of Science, M. L. Sukhadia University, Udaipur- 313001, India.
2
College of Technology and Engineering, MPUAT, Udaipur- 313001, India.
3
Rajasthan State Mines and Minerals, Udaipur- 313001, India.

Received 13 March 2014; revised 18 June 2015; accepted 14 December 2015

Phosphate tailings pose significant risk to the environment as point sources of basic, carbonate-rich effluents. This waste
may be judiciously used for the biofertilizer preparation. The enrichment of compost by adding low grade rock phosphate
also offers a potential preposition for the effective utilization of insoluble P. Experimentally, the compostable material
(Biogas spent slurry) is mixed well with 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10% of rock phosphate & tailings were added on wet weight basis.
A phosphate solubilizing bacteria Pseudomonas putida and a sulphur oxidizing bacteria Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans were
used for inoculation. The treatments were set up as to compare between inoculated and uninoculated treatments. The
compost mixtures were incubated for 60 days. The various parameters like pH, EC, volatile solids, nitrogen, phosphorus and
potash were determined during the complete span of composting. Out of all inoculated and uninoculated treatments,
treatment with 5% rock phosphate and 5% tailings was found best. The effect of inoculated species in the system was not
found very significant due to higher activity of the native bacteria. This scheme will certainly help in reducing the wastage
of these resources, mitigation of pollution and will generate additional revenue to the company producing this waste.

Keywords: Biofertilizer, Grade Rock Phosphate, Pollution.

Introduction compost is to prepare enriched organo-mineral

Large unexploited reserves of low grade rock
phosphate in many countries are unsuitable for
manufacture of phosphatic fertilizer. For industrial
use of these low grade ores, a need arises to
beneficiate them up to required phosphorus content
(>30%). The floatation processes of beneficiation
produce silica and carbonate rich tailings. Tailings are
therefore, the waste produced from phosphate
beneficiation plant which is usually deposited in
open-air impoundments. They consist of milled,
fine-grained material and often contain considerable
amounts of metal sulfides and carbonates1. These
dolomitic tailings along with rock phosphate can be
potentially useful in agriculture. An attempt has been
made to exploit this waste for the biofertilizer
preparation to convert the nutrients into available
forms.The composts prepared from farm wastes
are considered as poor suppliers of nutrients to
crops particularly phosphorus (P) and potassium (K).
A possible means of improving the nutrient content in
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
Author for correspondence
E-mail: swatib14@gmail.com
fertilizers by addition of low-grade materials such as
rock phosphate (RP) and phosphate tailings. In other
senses, composting technology improves the
availability of P in low-grade RP and tailings. It will
not only help farmers in supplying plant nutrients
at a very low investment but will also keep the
environment pollution-free. Moreover, because
phosphorus acts as non-renewable nutrient source, the
efficient use of the indigenous sources of these
nutrients in crop production can help to reduce the
reliance on costly chemical fertilizers. The enrichment
of compost with 5 per cent single super phosphate has
been done by many researchers2,3,4. But an
amendment with insoluble rock phosphate during
composting is a more rational approach. Thus,
compost fortified with low-grade RP and tailings after
mineralization (solubilization) can serve as good
source of nutrients.
Materials and Methods
The experiment was designed with tailings,
rock phosphate, sulphur oxidizing bacteria
(Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans) and phosphate
 BABEL et al.: PREPARATION OF PHOSPHATE MINE TAILINGS ENRICHED BIOFERTILER
solubilizing bacteria (Pseudomonas putida) to
produce better compost with higher phosphate
content. Owing to the high microbial diversity in
biogas digesters, the biogas spent slurry was used as
substrate in the experiment.
An equal percentage of tailings and low grade rock
phosphate (2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10%) was used in the
treatments.The talc based culture of Acidithiobacillus
thiooxidans procured from Agrilife, Hyderabad and
liquid culture of phosphate solubilizing bacteria
Pseudomonas putida was used for inoculation. Since
elemental sulphur is the chief source of energy for
A. thiooxidans4; exactly 0.25% of AR grade elemental
sulphur (Merck) was added to each treatment except
for control. The effect of inoculation of bacteria was
assessed by setting an un-inoculated control at each
concentration. A complete control without rock
phosphate, tailings and bacteria was kept for the
purpose of determining the extent of solubilization.
Table 1— Treatments
Treatment
BSS+RP(2.5%)+PP+PT(2.5%)+AT+Sulphur (0.25%) T1´
BSS+RP(2.5%)+PT(2.5%)+Sulphur(0.25%) T2´
BSS+RP(5%)+PP+PT(5%)+AT+Sulphur(0.25%) T3´
BSS+RP(5%)+PT(5%)+Sulphur(0.25%) T4´
BSS+RP(7.5%)+PP+PT(7.5%)+AT+Sulphur(0.25%) T5´
BSS+RP(7.5%)+PT(7.5%)+Sulphur(0.25%) T6´
BSS+RP(10%)+PP+PT(10%)+AT+Sulphur(0.25%) T7´
BSS+RP(10%)+PT(10%)+Sulphur(0.25%) T8´
Control Tc
BSS- Biogas spent slurry; RP- Rock Phosphate; PT- Phosphate
Tailings; PP- Pseudomonas putida; AT- Acidithiobacillus
thiooxidans
Fig. 1—Effect of microbial inoculation on pH &EC(dS/m) at different concentration of phosphate tailings and rock phosphate
during composting period
121
All the components were layered in plastic trays of
10 kg capacity to maintain the uniformity of the
compost and increase exposure to contact surfaces.
In-vessel composting method was applied for the
aerobic degradation process in the green house for
60 days at 50-60% moisture6. However, water was
sprinkled on the mixtures as and when needed to
maintain the moisture level. The compost was turned
every 10 days to for proper aerobic decomposition,
mixing the compost materials, increasing porosity, and
exposing the compost mass to high interior
temperatures so that adequate pathogen destruction
occurs. At the end of the experiment, all the parameters
were determined by standard methods of analysis.
Results & Discussions
The physical appearance of the compost signs that
the final composts were faint earthy odour with a
crumbly texture like well-rotted farmyard manure.
The colour of the compost was dark brown or
blackish like mature compost. The pH of the compost
followed descending trend till the end of the
composting period. The composting time I, II, III, IV
and V indicate the values after 7, 17, 30, 45 and
60 days of composting. The piles inoculated with
2.5% phosphate tailings and rock phosphate (T1)
ended up with lowest pH values. The highest pH was
recorded in control (7.60) (figure 1). Similar work
was done by Lei et al.7 and Rajbanshi et al.8 The low
pH of the compost might be due additive substrates
and nutrient composition of the compost9 and
production of fermentation acids during
122 J SCI IND RES VOL 75 FEBRUARY 2016

composting10.Initially, Electrical Conductivity (EC)
range recorded was high, which initially ascended and
then decrease after 45 days. The highest EC was
recorded in the T3 treatment which was in
combination with 5% RP, tailings, Acidithiobacillus
thiooxidans and Pseudomonas putida (Figure 1).
Sarwar et al.11 also reported an increasing EC trend
with the application of fertilizer and compost to the
soil.During the composting process, the volatile solids
are mainly reduced during the first 2-4 weeks. After
4 weeks, further reduction and stabilization occurred
in volatile solids (Table 2). The treatments with 10%
tailings and 10% RP inoculated with Acidithiobacillus
(T7) projected highest trend of reduction in volatile
solids was followed by its uninoculated counterpart
(T8). Highest volatile solids were recorded in control
(from 57.58 to 46.16%). Nitrogen showed an
ascending trend during initially but a minor decrease
later on. The highest trend for nitrogen was recorded
within 60 days in control treatment12 (2.95%), and
then in the T3 treatment (2.08%) with 5% tailings
and 5% rock phosphate with microbial inoculation
(Table 2). Lowest nitrogen content was recorded in T8
treatment (0.93%) with 10% phosphate tailings and
10% rock phosphate without microbial inoculation.
Moreover, more volatilization in the treatments
involving RP and PT lead to greater loss of ammonia,
thus lesser nitrogen content in the final compost.C:N
ratio is ultimately a maturity parameter for the
production of compost and the results suggest that all
the treatments including control have undergone a
proper composting process and therefore ended up
with C:N ratios under 16:1 which has been considered
internationally as compost maturity index.The total P
content of all the composting mixtures increased
significantly with composting time (Table 2). Total
phosphorus increased in all the treatments due to the
loss of total weight in the form of volatile solids.
Level of soluble phosphorus in the compost sample,
in case of treatments inoculated with Acidithiobacillus
thiooxidans increased significantly up to end of the
composting period.The highest trend of soluble K was
recorded on 45 days of composting in all treatments.
The trend was going in descending order after 45 days
in most of the treatments. Till 45 days, the trend was
in ascending order. On 60 days, the minor decrease in
the trend of K content was recorded. Table 2
illustrates the highly significant difference among the
treatments. The highest total potassium was reported
in uninoculated treatments in which tailings and RP
were added @ 2.5%, followed by the treatment with
tailings and RP @5%. The volatile organic
compounds strongly degrade during the course of
composting ultimately reducing the overall weight of
the composting mass. This reduction in the total
weight increases the nutrient composition of the
compost. Thus, gradual increase was observed in the
total calcium content (Table-2). However, trend in the
available portion increased upto 30 to 45 days and
then decreased in all the treatments. The decrease in
the available calcium indicates towards the possibility
of fixation of calcium due to stabilization of pH
during the final stages of composting. The highest
total calcium content was found in the treatments
with 10% tailings and 10% rock phosphate as
was expected. However, the inoculated treatment
(246.4 mg kg-1) possessed higher quantity than
uninoculated one (238.0 mg kg-1). The lowest was
recorded in control with 33.76 mg kg-1 calcium. As far
as the available part is concerned, calcium solubility
was highest in T6 treatment with 11.0 mg kg-1 followed
by T3 treatment with 10.57 mg kg-1.
The lowest available calcium was found in control
(3.01 mg kg-1).Inoculated treatment (T1) have

Table 2—Effect of inoculation and varied concentrations of phosphate tailings and rock phosphate on volatile solids, Nitrogen,
Total and available phosphorus, total and available potassium, total and available calcium, total and available magnesium
Treatments Volatile N P(mg/kg) K(mg/kg) Ca (g/kg) Mg(g/kg)
solids (%) (%)
Tot. Avail. Tot. Avail. Tot. Avail. Tot. Avail.
T1 26.25 1.65 22.8 1.12 4.42 2.36 159.6 8.29 40.44 3.12
T2 28.34 1.52 22.2 0.88 5.06 2.93 170.2 7.79 27.24 3.36
T3 29.36 2.08 23.6 1.36 3.22 2.30 191.0 9.64 42.42 3.66*
T4 22.23 1.26 23.2 1.06 4.94 2.21 186.2 9.21 31.50 2.40
T5 23.01 1.00 24.2 0.99 3.12 2.22 215.4 7.36 38.04 3.66*
T6 23.8 1.03 24.0 1.02 3.46 1.72 211.1 10.36 41.34 3.72*
T7 18.25 1.08 25.2 1.03 2.96 1.75 246.4 9.79 39.90 3.18
T8 19.76 0.93 25.6 1.09 3.08 1.67 238.0 9.57 39.66 2.70
Tc 46.16 2.95 14.8 1.02 4.04 2.42 33.76 3.01 13.32 0.84
 BABEL et al.: PREPARATION OF PHOSPHATE MINE TAILINGS ENRICHED BIOFERTILER
comparatively higher magnesium content than the
uninoculated ones (T2) in the treatments containing
2.5% RP and PT. Likewise, among treatments with
5% RP and PT (Table-2), the inoculated T3 treatment
possessed higher amount of magnesium than
uninoculated one (T4). But ironically, similar trend
was not noticed in the further increasing
concentrations of RP and PT. This may be due to
the inhibitory effect of higher concentrations of
these minerals on the microbial bulk. The control
treatment manifested the final magnesium content
of 0.84 g kg-1.
Conclusions
The microbially inoculated treatment incorporating
5% rock phosphate and 5% tailings (T1) was found
best among all the treatments. Inoculation with
phosphate solubilizing and sulphur oxidizing
microbes into compost increased the rate of
decomposition of inorganic wastes during the
preparation of biofertilizers with high soluble
phosphorus content. However, inoculation of
micro-organisms was observed to be a necessary
step so as to establish better encouraging surroundings
for growth and development. Thus, inorganic waste
material can be converted into valuable organic
biofertilizer by addition of lower doses of chemical
waste and inoculation with effective microorganisms.
The application of a combination of treatment,
tailings, rock phosphate (RP), effective microbes
(EM) and sulphur have positive effect on increasing
nutrient status of compost. The addition of sulphur
also reduced the incubation time of the compost.
Acknowledgement
The authors are thankful to Agrilife, Hyderabad
for the providing the required microbial strain
for the study.
123
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