Bioremediation of mining waste and tailings in Sub-Saharan Africa: a PRISMA-2020 evidence synthesis from bench to field

Résumé

Sub-Saharan Africa is a global centre of copper, cobalt, gold, and tin production, and mining practices — especially artisanal and small-scale mining — have left soils, sediments, water, and food crops contaminated with arsenic, lead, mercury, copper, and cobalt, often above WHO thresholds. Conventional physico-chemical remediation is typically unaffordable in these settings and poorly suited to the diffuse, multi-metal contamination characteristic of SSA mining landscapes. This PRISMA-2020-aligned systematic review synthesises the evidence base for bioremediation of mining-derived waste in SSA, identifying the biophysical, operational, and socio-economic conditions under which laboratory innovation translates to field-realistic application. Following PRISMA 2020, we synthesised 75 sources (69 articles, 6 grey-literature reports; January 2020 to mid-2026) drawn from six databases plus targeted grey-literature channels. Two reviewers screened, extracted, and appraised each source, with third-reviewer adjudication. Risk of bias was assessed using an adapted CASP checklist. Four findings emerged; First, SSA harbours distinctive autochthonous resources: Cu/Co-tolerant mycobiota dominated by Basidiomycota (64.6%) and Ascomycota (21.3%), native hyperaccumulator flora (shoot Cu up to ~13,700 mg kg –1 in Aeollanthus subacaulis var. linearis ), and arbuscular mycorrhizal consortia. Second, laboratory efficacy is high: bioleaching achieves 65–88% Cu recovery; sulfate-reducing bacteria remove 70–95% of dissolved metals; biosorption with fungal/agricultural-waste biomass removes 60–90% of Cu, Pb, and Cd. Third, field efficacy is consistently attenuated (factors ≈0.20–0.55), driven by ASM governance fragmentation, francophone/lusophone indexing deficits, land-tenure insecurity, weak regulatory enforcement, and subsistence-economy coupling. Fourth, mineral-recovery economics can partly underwrite remediation, but no techno-economic case alone closes the lab-to-field gap. Operationalising SSA’s biological capital requires tiered lab-to-pilot-to-field pipelines with mandatory geochemical baselines, ASM formalisation backed by enforceable closure bonds, and active investment in francophone/lusophone bibliographic coverage. Research priorities are SSA-specific reporting protocols, longitudinal climate-resilient field monitoring, life-cycle–techno-economic integration, vulnerability-differentiated impact assessment, and integration of remote sensing (Sentinel-2, hyperspectral, Landsat/MODIS archives) with biological endpoints.

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