Assessment of Heavy Metals in Mine Soil and Tailings from Jos, Nigeria

Abstract

Jos is a mining town in Nigeria; mining activities has been going on in the area for more than a 100 years. Although, the mining and other related activities have brought about economic, social growth and infrastructural development in the area. Unfortunately, mining activities has been linked to the enhance in the level of heavy metals in the soil and other geological formations in the environment. To ascertain the heavy metals (HM) burden in the soil due to tin mining activities at Rayfield-Du area of Jos, HM concentrations were evaluated in soil samples collected from the mine site. The HM concentrations in the soils were evaluated using the Energy Dispersive X-ray Florescence (EDXRF) spectrometer system. The analysis of eight HM (Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Cd, and Pb) concentrations showed that they are above the Nigerian reference level except for Co and Ni. The pollution and ecological risk indices of the HM concentrations were classified as low for the mine soils.