Preliminary Study of Heavy Metal (Zn, Pb, Cr, As, Cu, Cd) Contaminations on Different Soil Level from Post-Mining Bauxite Production for Aquaculture

Abstract

Bauxite production and exploration give negative impact environmental modification and increasing concern pollution of heavy metals. One of an alternative to reduce the negative impact of bauxite post-mining production is by re-utilizing the abandoned bauxite land and necessary exploratory study to obtain the current environmental conditions primarily related to heavy metals in bauxite mining area. Soil and water quality samples from 5 (five) sites based on post-mining activities were used to determine concentration heavy metals of As, Cd, Pb, Zn, Cr, Cu from different soil level. They were also collected for grain size analysis including those of sand and mud percentages along with the mean, and sorting analysis. The mean grain size post-mining bauxite ranged between very fine sand to medium sand and had heterogeneous texture. The coarse grain size percentage increased towards the bottom of the soil. Total heavy metal contents for post-mining bauxite soils are 0,081 ppm, 0,245 to 0,471 ppm and 0,007 ppm for As, Pb and Cd respectively. Heavy metals for Cd, uniformly at every depth from soil level. On the other hand, Pb showed significance pattern, it was indicated every depth from soil level, the concentration of Pb was different.