Cyanide Biodegradation by a Native Bacterial Consortium and Its Potential for Goldmine Tailing Biotreatment
, Sofía E. Garrido-Hoyos 2, María Elena Raynal-Gutiérrez 3, Elie G. El-Kassis 1, Víctor M. Luque-Almagro 4 and Genoveva Rosano-Ortega 1,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The study describes a bacterial consortium's biodegradation of cyanide from mine tailings. Among the degrading bacteria, Cellulosimicrobium was described in a consortium of cyanide-degrading microorganisms, with is unusual and interesting. However, as the bacteria were not tested individually, it is not possible to affirm that Cellulosimicrobium is a degrading cyanide bacterium. The abstract should be reviwed to avoid that mistake. Before publishing in IJERPH, some suggestions for corrections are pointed out below.
The language is appropriate and clear.
Line 75: Please, include a comma after 'team.'
"In our research team, we have isolated a native bacterial...."
Line 79: The final dot is missing.
Line 87: Close the parenthesis after pH 9.
Line 119: Please, put a comma after 'extractions.
After extractions, samples were stored at -20C.
Topic 2.6: How many bacteria inoculum was put in the cyanide medium? If it was the same as described in topic 2.2 (10% v/v), please, clarify it in the text.
Line 157: The results did not show the kinetic data and F-CN biodegradation parameters of synthetic cyanided solutions with sodium cyanide at 10 mg/ml.
Table 2: Please, include the second kinetic order R2 coefficients in table 2.
Line 235: A maximum of 23 different colonies (probably 23 different strains) were isolated, but the results showed only five different bacterial species, as stated in table 1.
Line 238: "The" identification...
Line 254: The Bacillus genus was isolated in the study.
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The present work provided a report on the cyanide biodegradation by a native bacterial consortium. It has practical engineering significance. However, the following modifications need to be made before acceptation.
1) Provided more information (such as water qualities) of the tested sample.
2) The preciseness of the conclusion needs to be re-evaluated. Especially the determination of relevant strains.
3) Some necessary validation experiments need to be supplemented. Such as the cyanide degradation in the actual wastewater.
4) Some expressions need to be precise. Such as "the first report".
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
The article 'Cyanide biodegradation by a native bacterial consortium and its potential for goldmine tailings biotreatment' provides valuable scientific information on microbial processes that can be implemented for mine site reclamation. The article is well-written and scientifically sound. However, the authors must address the following comments-
The authors should mention the challenges of this leaching procedure in the field conditions.
The table and figure captions need to be more descriptive, especially for the abbreviated terms.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.docx
