Trace metal element pollution of soil and water resources caused by small-scale metallic ore mining activities: a case study from a sphalerite mine in North China

Abstract

Trace metal element contamination in mining areas is always a huge environmental challenge for the global mining industry. In this study, an abandoned sphalerite mine near the Yanshan Mountains was selected as subject to evaluate the soil and water contamination caused by small-scale mining. The results show that (1) Pearson correlation matrix and principal component analysis (PCA) results reveal that Zn, Cu, Cd, and Pb were greatly affected by the operation of mines, especially mineral tailings. The contents of trace metal elements decrease with the increase of the distance from the mining area. Zinc, Pb, and Cd were discovered in almost all soil samples, and Zn accounted for about 80% of pollution of the topsoil. (2) The trace element pollution levels in the topsoil of the three villages were ranked as follows: Cd > Cu > Pb~Zn. The potential ecological risk of farmland around the mine ranges from lower to higher, with Cd being the most harmful. (3) Human health risk assessment results show that trace elements in the mining area pose obvious non-carcinogenic health risks to children while the risks to adults are not equally obvious. The carcinogenic risk of Cd and Cr is within a safe range and does not pose an obvious cancer risk to the population. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s11356-019-05703-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Occurrence, Distribution and Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in Agricultural Soil and Water Around a Lead-zinc Mine in Southwest China

“…Meanwhile, the reason for higher concentration of Cu in well water might be due to the corrosion of internal copper water pipes (WHO 2011). Heavy metals concentration in surface water in study area was similar to a Pb-Zn mine in Huayuan (Du et al 2019), but lower than that from sphalerite mine in North China (Lu et al 2019).…”

“…Simultaneously, the position of high concentration of Mn for stream water and soil was identical, which mainly discharge from ore weathering during mineral mining, while Cu probably originated from agricultural activities for the average of Cu content from village tributary was higher than that from stream (Table 3). During the rainfall, the soil particles carried into the stream by surface runoff (Wang et al 2018), these particles flow with stream and eventually deposited in the flat downstream because of the terrain in study area (Lu et al 2019). When the water environmental conditions change, heavy metals could be dissolved into water from deposited particles again (Han et al 2017), causing a higher concentration in downstream (Fig .…”

Assessment of Health Risks Related to Contamination of Groundwater by Trace Metal Elements (Hg, Pb, Cd, As and Fe) in the Department of Zouan-Hounien (West Côte D’Ivoire)

“…In children, mercury toxicity may Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection manifest as edema, pain, redness, scaling of fingers and toes (acrodynia), and hypertension (Böse-O'Reilly et al, 2010). Several authors have made this observation (Xiao et al, 2018;Al-Khatib et al, 2019;Lu et al, 2019). Their still-developing bodies and low body weight explain this vulnerability of children (Olujimi et al, 2015;Tanouayi et al, 2015).…”

Sewage Sludge as a Tool in Limiting the Content of Trace Elements in Avena sativa L. on the Soil Polluted with Diesel Oil

“…Trace elements are natural components of the environment, where their concentrations depend on the origin and chemical composition of the parent rock as well as the intensity of geological and soil-formation processes [ 11 , 12 ]. However, many elements enter soil in elevated quantities due to human activity, which turns the soil into a reservoir of these elements and, in certain circumstances, an uncontrolled source of such elements to living organisms [ 13 ]. We can distinguish among trace elements micronutrients essential for plant organisms, such as copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) and manganese (Mn), as well as useless elements, whose physiological role has not been completely elucidated yet, for example lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) [ 14 , 15 ].…”