Distribution of As and Se Elements in the Soil of the Sarcheshmeh Copper Mine Area, Kerman

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• M.R. Shayestehfar ¹
• N. Shafiee ²
• H. Shirani ²
• A. Rezaei ³
• M.R. Kargar Dianati ⁴

¹ Department of Mining Engineering, Energy and Environmental Engineering Research Center Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran

² Department of Soil Sciences, Vali Asr University of Rafsanjan, Rafsanjan, Iran

³ Department of Mining Engineering, (Expert of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran) Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran

⁴ Sarcheshme Copper Mine, Kerman, Iran

10.22067/jsw.v0i0.14862

Abstract

In recent years, the study of soil contamination problems surrounding the mines and smelting plants has attracted the serious attention of the environmental experts. In Iran, due to the mining and mine development, the study of environmental problems seems to be obligatory. The main point of this research is the implications of the statistical and geostatistical studies to evaluate and prepare elemental dispersion map of the As and Se elements around the soil of the Sarcheshmeh copper mine area. To investigate the rate of concentration of heavy metals, the path of sampling selected in three different directions. From the area in which the chimneys of the smelting plant of the Sarcheshmeh copper factory is at the centre within a radius of 6 kms, which is collected for the number of 120 soil samples from the surface with the maximum of 30 centimeters depth from the entire area were collected from the original areas and were interpreted after the analysis by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Initially, the necessary statistical parameters have been done with respect to the data distribution. Therefore, variogram used for the variation justification of all the directions and the parameters of variogram model was processed and estimated by kriging jack knife method. Eventually the contaminated As and Se areas were identified respectively with the help of normal kriging estimator. With the use of the produced maps, the perquisite conclusion was the possible concentration of As element around the chimneys which is more than the rest of the places and dominated wind blow direction, that is towards the Rafsanjan city. Also about the Se, the result exhibited that, unlike As, the wind direction has no effect on the dispersion of it and the transmittal rate is related to the geological characteristic of the study area.

Keywords

• Dispersion map
• Arsenic
• Selenium
• Environment
• Sarcheshmeh Copper Mine

20.1001.1.20084757.1391.26.3.1.7

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