Mine Waste and Heavy Metal Pollution in Betare-Oya Mining Area (Eastern Cameroon)

Abstract

Received: 18 September 2019 Accepted: 5 November 2019 This study includes soils and tailings from the gold mine of four stations (Mari, Mbigala, Mboufa and, Bedobo) in Betare-Oya, eastern Cameroon. These stations have been utilized by Cameroonians and later on by some companies. Soils and tailings were sampled and heavy metal (Cr, V, Ni, Cu, Zn, Hg and, Pb) and radioactive element (Th and U) contents have been determined using ICP–MS techniques. This work deals with the heavy metaldistribution in mining waste and surrounding soils and tailings.The study area is exposed to artisanal gold mining activities. Field observations revealed the soildestructionas well as the environment. All metal values fall below the average shale, except Cr who’s the content is higher than the shale value in soils and tailings. Lead and Th values are above the average shale in tailings. Heavy metal pollution was performed using pollution indices such as enrichment factor (EF), geo-accumulation index (I-geo) and pollution load index (PLI). The overall results reveal that the soils and tailing from Betare-Oya mining area, Eastern Cameroon are only polluted by Cr. These sediments have minor to moderate enrichment; they are unpolluted to moderately polluted with a low contamination level for other metals. Only two stations can be considered as slightly polluted, with minor enrichment and moderate contamination by metals.