Acid mine drainage (AMD) is an environmental threat due to its low pH and high metal content. Biological treatment of AMD using acidophilic sulfate-reducing bacteria (aSRB) represents a potential solution for this problem, but their substrate specificity and low tolerance to extreme acidity (pH ≤3.0) and toxic metals limit their application. Here, we used an indigenous aSRB-containing consortium to remove metals and neutralize a synthetic AMD (sAMD) system starting at pH 2.9. The consortium was