Arsenic and Heavy Metal Pollution of Soil, Water and Sediments in a Semi-Arid Climate Mining Area in Mexico

Geochemical background of potentially toxic trace elements in soils of the historic copper mining area: a case study from Miedzianka Mt., Holy Cross Mountains, south-central Poland

“…Much higher Cu levels in surface soils (70-2231 mg kg -1 ) were reported from the abandoned Miguel Vacas copper mine in SE Portugal (Abreu et al 2008b) or other post-mining areas, where Cu ores were extracted, e.g. 15-7200 mg kg -1 in Mexico (Razo et al 2004) and 7-3430 mg kg -1 in the Sudetes Mts, SW Poland (Karczewska et al 2006). …”

“…Likewise, high Zn levels (53-211 mg kg -1 ) were found in surface soils (horizon-A) of the abandoned Miguel Vacas Cu mine in SE Portugal (Abreu et al 2008b) and soils of different post-mining areas, for example, 31-835 mg kg -1 in France (Camizuli et al 2014), 46-215 mg kg -1 in northern Spain (Loredo et al 2006) or 28-3660 mg kg -1 in the abandoned Cu mines in the Sudetes Mts SW Poland (Karczewska et al 2006). Extremely high Zn concentrations (46-182,000 mg kg -1 ) were reported in soils from the High Moulouya Valley in Morocco (Iavazzo et al 2012) and from San Luis Potosi in Mexico (26-6270 mg kg -1 ) (Razo et al 2004). …”

“…Much higher levels of As in soils were found in post-mining areas throughout the world. The following concentration ranges of As in soils of the former mining sites were reported: 32-19,930 mg kg -1 (abandoned Hg-mining area in northern Spain) (Loredo et al 2006), 2-262 mg kg -1 (post-mining soils of the High Moulouya Valley Morocco) (Iavazzo et al 2012), 19-17,384 mg kg -1 (post-mining soils in Mexico) (Razo et al 2004) and 50-17,400 mg kg -1 (former Sb mining area in Scotland) (Gal et al 2007). The concentrations of As in the study area varied from 4 to 1319 mg kg -1 with a mean of 203 mg kg -1 .…”

“…Anomalous lead concentrations (in mg kg -1 ) were reported for soils in historic mining areas in the following countries: France (41-4520 mg kg -1 ) (Camizuli et al 2014), Spain (20-142 mg kg -1 ) (Loredo et al 2006), Morocco (40-13,300 mg kg -1 ) (Iavazzo et al 2012), Mexico (31-3450 mg kg -1 ) (Razo et al 2004), SW Poland (5.8-2090 mg kg -1 ) (Karczewska et al 2006). Lead showed the lowest Spearman's correlation coefficient values compared with other elements (Table 6).…”

Reclamation of Degraded Landscapes due to Opencast Mining

“…Razo et al (2004) assessed the environmental impact of arsenic and heavy metal pollution of soil, sediment and surface water in the Villa de la Paz-Matehuala, San Luis Potosi in Mexico, and the results of soil samples reported high concentrations of chemicals hazardous to human health. In order to give a specific example, the maximum arsenic concentration in pluvial water storage ponds (265 μg.L −1 ), near the main potential sources of pollution, exceed by 5 times the Mexican drinking water quality guideline (50 μg.L −1 ).…”