Contamination of the Dzheltulak-1 river basin under alluvial gold mining (the Amur region)

Abstract

The purpose of the introduced research is to study the environmental impact of placer gold mining. The object of the study is natural and natural-man-made geosystems of the Dzheltulak-1 river located in the Amur region. The content of the main cations and microelements in water samples was determined by atomic emission and mass spectral methods. The content of micro- and rock-forming elements in bottom sediments and soils was determined by X-ray fluorescence using XRF-1800 X-ray spectrometer (Shimadzu, Japan). The results of the conducted studies indicate that the contents of iron, manganese, copper, aluminum, vanadium, molybdenum, mercury and ammonium ions exceed commercial fishery standards in a significant part of the surface water samples. It is found out that settlement ponds negatively affect the water quality in the river Dzheltulak-1 downstream due to the dam drainage. The highest concentrations of dissolved forms of mercury were noted in the water of the settlement ponds. The gross content of arsenic in the samples of bottom sediments and soils exceeds sanitary and hygienic standards by 2.7–14.5 times. The distributions of mercury as the most dangerous pollutant among the biogenic components of geochemical landscape were worked out in detail. Mercury contamination of soils was classified according to the forms of mercury occurrence: free, physically sorbed, chemisorbed, sulfide and isomorphic. It has been shown that the free form is characteristic of fresh mercury contamination due to the use of prohibited technological schemes for gold-bearing sands separation by the amalgamation method.