Abstract
Soil heavy metal pollution evaluations are a necessary measure for mine ecological control projects. In this study, the heavy metals Pb, Zn and Cd were studied in mining areas, tailings areas, sewage plant areas, residential areas, reclamation areas, and farmland areas. Soil pollution assessments of lead-zinc ore mine soils in the countryside of China are performed based on the index of geoaccumulation (Igeo) and the improved analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Finally, the pollution sources were analyzed by positive matrix factorization (PMF). The Igeo for the heavy metals Pb, Zn and Cd in the mining area reached 5.20, 3.34, and 5.66, respectively. In addition, 80 and 65% of the mining area and tailings area reached extremely strong pollution, respectively. The numerical simulation predicts that the pollution hazard in the southeast of the mine is high and that the pollution is concentrated. The severity of soil pollution in mines derived by the index of improved analytic hierarchy process (PAHP) was as follows: mining area (70.80) > sewage plant area (35.57) > tailings area (30.64) > farmland area (28.40) > residential area (21.11) > reclamation area (10.06). Among the three categories of pollution sources, one includes reclamation area, farmland area and tailings area; one includes sewage plant area and residential area; and one includes mining area. The source contribution of Pb by the phenomenon of indiscriminate discharge of wastewater after ore smelting was as high as 90.4%; The contribution of the blind mining and tailings piling phenomenon of mines to the source of heavy metals Zn and Cd was 81.4 and 90.2%, respectively. This study proposes a reliable scientific method and technical method for evaluating mine soil pollution and provides a guiding basis for mine development and protection.
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Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province, grant number “2021JJ30679,” and the Hunan Provincial Department of Education General Project, grant number “19C1744.” The authors wish to give special thanks to Dr. TIAN Ke of the College of Environment and Resources, Xiangtan University, China for the experimental support; Ms. ZHANG Kang for her careful guidance of the experiments; and Dr. SHI Dongping for providing the soil treatment site. We would like to thank Mr. DAI Huangbiao of Hunan Pengyuan-Hongda Mining Company for his help with sample collection.
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CJ planned and designed the study. Together with CJ carried out all the experiments. CJ performed laboratory analysis. HZR performed the data analysis. XCY is the funding provider for this article. The manuscript was written by CJ, XCY, HZR commented on previous versions of the manuscript.
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Cao, J., Xie, C. & Hou, Z. Ecological evaluation of heavy metal pollution in the soil of Pb-Zn mines. Ecotoxicology 31, 259–270 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-021-02505-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-021-02505-3