| Lawrence Emmanuel Tolulade, John Osiroko Attah, Kehinde Damilare Taiwo, Kehinde Ige Ologbonjaye, Lateefat Abiola Jimoh, Mahama Musah, Pelumi Adeshina Oderinde,Taiwo Adeyemi Olutimehin and Uwazuruike Chiamaka Blessing |
| Human activities and mining operations produce waste materials which contain trace metals that could be absorbed by soils around the mine site and its surroundings. One of the major sources of metals in the soil in Ile-Ife, Osun State is gold mining. The State is highly mineralized and the concentrations of Pb, Fe, Cu, Mg, can increase in the environment because of mining activities, leading to environmental pollution and pose toxicity risks to humans and animals. The aim of this study is to identify the concentration level and the trends of heavy metals in the soil at different points at the mining site.Soil samples were collected from the gold mining site for three months from different spots and atomic absorption spectroscopy was utilized to examine the concentrations of Pb, Fe, Cu, and Mg.The result from this research shows that the value of magnesium (Mg) and Iron (Fe) were significantly highin all the five samples collected from the site for three months, with the highest absorbance value of 0.9935 for Mg, and 0.6934 for Fe with concomitant decrease in the value of lead (Pb) and copper (Cu). This proofs that there is a trace of heavy metals such as Mg, Fe, Pb, and Cu on the mining site. The researchers suggested that point sources of heavy metals should be closely monitored and proper treatment toremove toxic levels of heavy metals accumulation inthe environment must be put into consideration.
Keywords: Artisanal mining, Deforestation, Environmental impact, Heavy metals, Large-scale mining, Soil contamination.
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