Environ Sci Pollut Res
DOI 10.1007/s11356-016-7968-3
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Heavy metal pollution in soil associated with a large-scale
cyanidation gold mining region in southeast of Jilin, China
Mo Chen 1,2 & Wenxi Lu 1,2 & Zeyu Hou 1,2 & Yu Zhang 1,2 & Xue Jiang 1,2 & Jichun Wu 3
Received: 4 February 2016 / Accepted: 24 October 2016
# Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016
Abstract Different gold mining and smelting processes can
lead to distinctive heavy metal contamination patterns and
results. This work examined heavy metal pollution from a
large-scale cyanidation gold mining operation, which is dis-
tinguished from artisanal and small-scale amalgamation gold
mining, in Jilin Province, China. A total of 20 samples includ-
ing one background sample were collected from the surface of
the mining area and the tailings pond in June 2013. These
samples were analyzed for heavy metal concentrations and
degree of pollution as well as sources of Cr, Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni,
Cd, As, and Hg. The mean concentrations of Pb, Hg, and Cu
(819.67, 0.12, and 46.92 mg kg−1, respectively) in soil sam-
ples from the gold mine area exceeded local background
values. The mean Hg content was less than the first-class
standard of the Environmental Quality for Soils, which sug-
gested that the cyanidation method is helpful for reducing Hg
pollution. The geochemical accumulation index and enrich-
ment factor results indicated clear signs that enrichment was
present for Pb, Cu, and Hg, with the presence of serious Pb
pollution and moderate presence to none of Hg and Cu pollu-
tion. Multivariate statistical analysis showed that there were
three metal sources: (1) Pb, Cd, Cu, and As came from
Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues
* Wenxi Lu
luwenxi@jlu.edu.cn
1
Key Laboratory of Groundwater Resources and Environment, Jilin
University, Changchun 130021, China
2
College of Environment and Resources, Jilin University,
Changchun 130021, China
3
Department of Hydrosciences, State Key Laboratory of Pollution
Control and Resources Reuse, Nanjing University,
Nanjing, Jiangsu 210000, China
anthropogenic sources; (2) Cr and Zn were naturally occur-
ring; whereas (3) Hg and Ni had a mix of anthropogenic and
natural sources. Moreover, the tailings dam plays an important
role in intercepting the tailings. Furthermore, the potential
ecological risk assessment results showed that the study area
poses a potentially strong risk to the ecological health.
Furthermore, Pb and Hg (due to high concentration and high
toxicity, respectively) are major pollutants on the risk index,
and both Pb and Hg pollution should be of great concern at the
Haigou gold mines in Jilin, China.
Keywords Heavy metals . Gold mine . Cyanidation .
Multivariate statistical analysis . Geochemical accumulation
index . Enrichment factor . Potential ecological risk
Introduction
Heavy metals are regarded as a dangerous group of anthropo-
genic pollutants and are a major cause of concern because they
are persistent and potentially toxic to the environment (Cao
et al. 2015; Grandjean and Landrigan 2006; Huang et al.
2013). Mining is one of the most important sources of heavy
metals in the environment (Lim et al. 2008). Heavy metals
accumulated in soil around mines have caused widespread
concern due to the serious health risk they pose to humans
through a variety of conditions and diseases (Basu et al. 2015;
Li et al. 2014; Navarro et al. 2008). In recent years, a number
of scientists have studied heavy metal pollution in soils around
gold mines (Cao et al. 2015; Odumo et al. 2014; Straaten
2000; Taylor et al. 2005; Wu et al. 2011).
Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) was the
largest anthropogenic source of global Hg atmospheric emis-
sions in 2010 (UNEP 2013) and has been recognized as one of
the Top 10 Toxic Pollution Problems in 2012 by the

Blacksmith Institute (Li et al. 2015). The amalgamation meth-
od, a kind of simple and ancient gold extraction method, is
widely used in ASGM in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam,
Canada, Australia, USA, China, and other countries
(Lacerda 1997; Olivero-Verbel et al. 2015; Palapa and
Maramis 2015; Pestana and Formoso 2003; Pestana et al.
2000; Requelme et al. 2003). A large amount of mercury
added in the gold extraction process results in the pollution
of the soil around these mining areas. In the mineral district of
Nambija in the Ecuadorian Amazon, mean total Hg concen-
trations of 1.7 and 2.7 mg kg−1 have been found in soils and
stream sediments, respectively (Requelme et al. 2003). The
highest recorded Hg concentration in sediments was
63.46 mg·kg−1 in the gold mining district of San Martin de
Loba, South of Bolivar (Olivero-Verbel et al. 2015). In the
small-scale gold mining in Tanzania and Zimbabwe, the
highest Hg concentration in sediment reached 5.35 mg kg−1
(Straaten 2000). In China, Qian Li et al. (2014) found the
mean Hg concentration in soils upstream of the Miyun
Reservoir to be 30 times higher than background concentra-
tions. In 1996, the amalgamation method was banned in
China, and the cyanidation method has since been widely used
in large-scale mining. In this technique, finely ground mineral
grains are mixed with sodium cyanide, and the gold is leached
from the ore by a chemical reaction in which the gold forms a
water-soluble Au-cyanide complex (Abdalla et al. 2009). No
mercury is added at any time during the process. Because of
their differing extraction processes, amalgamation and
cyanidation methods lead to different contamination results.
Small-scale gold mining activities are mainly manual, low-
tech, subsistence activities employing large numbers of people
(Straaten 2000). The tailings from these gold mining opera-
tions, including extraction and smelting processes, are
discharged into the environment at random. Once arbitrarily
deposited, the tailings undergo chemical weathering and re-
lease toxic metals into the water (including groundwater) and
soil and are eventually ingested by various organisms (Li et al.
2014). Zhang et al. (2014) reported that extracting and pro-
cessing minerals from hard rock mines on an industrial scale
can result in tremendous loading of trace elements into
streams and rivers (Zhang et al. 2014). Large-scale gold mines
now have tailings ponds that have been built to intercept and
store the tailings, which necessitate a different approach to
pollution. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate
heavy metal soil pollution in a large-scale cyanidation gold
mining region, with a focus on Hg pollution.
This study was carried out at the Haigou gold mine, which is a
large-scale gold mine complete with a tailings pond and the
cyanidation extraction method. The primary objectives of this
study were (1) to determine the concentrations and the distribu-
tion of heavy metals (Cr, Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni, Cd, As, and Hg) in the
soil at the Haigou gold mine, (2) to assess the potential sources
and risks of these heavy metals, and (3) to confirm whether the
Environ Sci Pollut Res
cyanidation method is helpful for reducing the mercury pollution
of soils. The results presented provide a scientific basis for
preventing and controlling heavy metal pollution.
Methods and materials
Study area
The Haigou gold mining area is located in the north of Antu
County, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, in the Jilin
province of China and lies from the latitudes 42° 42′ 27″ N to
42° 43′ 43″ N and form the longitudes 128° 03′ 18″ E to 128°
04′ 48″ E (Fig. 1). The Haigou gold mining area is located in
the north of the Changbai Mountains. The terrain of the region
is high in the northwest and low in the southeast, and the
geomorphic type belongs to the erosion physiognomy. The
elevation of the study area varies from 550 to 730 m above
sea level, and the relative elevation is 180 m. The study area
experiences a continental monsoon climate of the North
Temperate Zone. The average rainfall and evaporation are
1100 and 1202.2 mm, respectively.
The Haigou gold mine integrating mining, extraction, and
smelting processes is a large low-sulfide quartz vein type gold
deposit. And the major metal minerals in ore are native gold,
pyrite, galena, chalcopyrite, molybdenite, hematite, etc. (Fan
2012). The all-slime cyanidation method is used to extract
gold in this mine. In the study area, the tailings pond has been
built for storing the tailings. Upstream of the tailing pond,
there is a floodwater catching channel, in which a tailings
dam is located downstream of the tailing pond. The significant
quantities of mine wastes have been dumped in the
Xiaohaigou region, and the tailings have been discharged into
the tailings pond since 1985.
Sample collection and chemical analyses
A total of 20 topsoil samples (0–20 cm) were collected in
June 2013 with a nominal density of five samples/km2.
There were three and eight soil samples, respectively, obtained
from the area around the solid waste dump and the extraction
and smelting factory. Four bottom sediment samples were
collected from the tailings pond, and two mill tailings samples
were obtained. Two soil samples were collected from the up-
stream and downstream of the tailings pond. Additionally, one
soil sample was collected as background soil from the north of
the study area, at a sufficient distance from the mining region.
The description of the collected samples is shown in Table 1.
Approximately 1 kg of soil was collected between a depth of 0
and 20 cm and sealed in hermetic bags after removing surface
impurities and gravel. At the same time, the coordinates of the
sampling point locations were recorded in detail by GPS, as
shown in Fig. 1.
Environ Sci Pollut Res

Fig. 1 Schematic map of the studied area and sampling point

The total contents of Cr, Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni, Cd, As, and Hg
were analyzed in the experiment center of Jilin University.
The soil samples were collected using polyethylene film bags
and then naturally air-dried with brown paper bags in the
laboratory. The moisture content of the soil samples ranged
from 3 to 5%. After grinding, sieving, blending, and dividing,
the soil samples were milled with a carnelian mortar and
passed through a 0.075-mm sieve for chemical analysis. The
multivariate mixed acid digestion method (HCl-HNO3-HF-
HClO4) was used to dispel soil samples. Samples were ana-
lyzed for Cr, Cu, Zn, and Pb concentrations by inductively
coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS7500a; Agilent
Technologies, Santa Clara, CA, USA). The Cd and Ni
contents were determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy
(AA-300; PerkinElmer Co., Waltham, USA), and the As and
Hg contents were measured by atomic fluorescence spectros-
copy (AFS920; Beijing Jitian Instrument Co., Beijing, China).
To guarantee high-quality results, a standard reference mate-
rial (SRM) was used to test each method’s precision and ac-
curacy. The recovery efficiency of the metals in the standard
soil sample (GBW07424) was in the range of 91.6–103.0%,
as shown in Table 2. Furthermore, the two sets of samples
were collected and analyzed as replicate samples. The relative
standard deviation of each element was less than 3%, meeting
the requirements of the technical specification for soil envi-
ronmental monitoring.

Table 1 Description of collected

samples Set Sample Description

1 YT1–1, YT1–2, and YT1–3
2 YT2–1, YT2–2, YT2–3, YT2–4,
YT2–5, YT2–6, YT1–4, and YT1–5
3 YT2–7, YT2–8, YT1–7, and YT2–11
4 YT2–9 and YT2–10
5 YT1–6
6 YT2–12
7 BT1–1
Soil samples collected near solid waste dump
Soil samples near the extracting and smelting factory
Bottom sediments from the tailings
Mill tailings
Soil samples from upstream of the tailings pond
Soil samples from downstream of the tailings pond
Background soil from the north of the study area
 Environ Sci Pollut Res

Table 2 List of certified

reference materials used in the Element GBW07424
study and the results obtained
Cr Cu Zn Pb Ni Cd As Hg

Measured value (mg kg−1) 53.1 19.2 56.9 20.3 24.8 0.098 8.60 0.034
Certified value (mg kg−1) 58.0 19.0 60.0 22.0 26.0 0.105 8.90 0.033
Recovery (%) 91.6 101 94.8 92.3 95.4 93.3 96.6 103

Methods sample is the soil samples in the study area, and baseline is the
background soils. Five contamination categories have been
Geochemical accumulation index defined, based on the EF, as shown in Table 4. In this study,
Sc (9.65 mg/kg) according to the China Element Background
The geochemical accumulation index (Igeo) was employed to Values for Soils published by the State Environmental
quantify heavy metal pollution in sediments. This index was Protection Administration (SEPAC 1990) was used as the ref-
calculated using the equation proposed by Muller (1969): erence element for geochemical normalization because the
element is generally considered to be mainly naturally
Igeo ¼ log2 ½C n =ðk  Bn Þ ð1Þ occurring.
where Cn is the sample metal concentration, k is the constant
for modifying the fluctuation of the background value caused Potential ecological risk index
by lithological movement, usually 1.5 (Bhuiyan et al. 2010),
and Bn is the geochemical background value of the heavy The potential ecological risk index method, proposed by the
metal. Based on the results, the heavy metal pollution was Swedish scientist Hakanson (1980), has been widely used in
classified into seven different categories, as shown in heavy metal pollution assessments of soils and sediments. The
Table 3 (Olivero-Verbel et al. 2015). method can be used not only to assess the effect of individual
metal but also to assess the combined influence of many
metals. The detailed formulae used to calculate the index
Enrichment factors can be found in previous papers (Li et al. 2014; Lu et al.
2015). The toxic response coefficients in the calculating pro-
The enrichment factor (EF), which is calculated by normalizing cess are as follows: Zn = 1 < Cr = 2 < Cu = Ni = Pb = 5 <
a measured element against a reference element, has been wide- As = 10 < Cd = 30 < Hg = 40 (Li et al. 2014). The grading
ly used to quantify the extent of anthropogenic contamination. standards of evaluating indexes have been defined in Table 5
The reference element chosen is usually conservative and sta- (Wu et al. 2010).
ble, such as Sc, Ti, Al, and Fe (Abrahim and Parker 2008; Li
et al. 2015). The EF is calculated using Eq. 2 (Li et al. 2014):
Statistical analysis
 
ðX =REÞsample
EF ¼ ð2Þ The experimental data was statistically analyzed using an
ðX =REÞbaseline
SPSS software package (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).
where X is the concentration of the element under consider- Factor analysis (FA) and cluster analysis (CA) were used to
ation, RE is the concentration of the chosen reference element, identify the relationship between metals and their possible
sources. The FA (the components of the principal components
Table 3 Judge standard of contamination degree by geochemical analysis) was performed by varimax rotation. Orthogonal ro-
accumulation index tation of the selected initial components to terminal factor
Class Igeo Contamination degree
Table 4 Judge standard of contamination degree by enrichment factor
0 Igeo ≤ 0 Non-pollution
Rank EF Contamination degree
1 0 < Igeo ≤ 1 Non-pollution to moderate pollution
2 1 < Igeo ≤ 2 Moderate pollution 1 <2 Non-pollution-slight pollution
3 2 < Igeo ≤ 3 Moderate to strong pollution 2 2–5 Moderate pollution
4 3 < Igeo ≤ 4 Strong pollution 3 5–20 Significant pollution
5 4 < Igeo ≤ 5 Strong to extremely pollution 4 20–40 Strong pollution
6 5 < Igeo ≤ 10 Extremely pollution 5 >40 Extremely strong pollution
Environ Sci Pollut Res
Table 5 Judge standard of
contamination degree by potential Rank Eira
ecological risk index
1 <40
2 40–80
3 80–160
4 160–320
5 >320
a
The potential ecological index of a single metal
b
The potential ecological risk index of a number of metals
solutions was done by Kaiser’s orthogonal rotation using
Kaiser’s varimax scheme (Kaiser 1958). The orthogonal rota-
tion minimizes the number of variables with a high loading on
each component and interpretation of PCA results. The CA
was applied to further classify the samples based on similari-
ties in the properties of the soil samples. Hierarchical cluster
analysis, the most widely used method, was used in this study.
The CA results were plotted as a dendrogram to show the
similarities between the samples (Li et al. 2014).
Results and discussion
Statistic characteristic analysis of heavy metal
concentrations
Table 6 shows a statistical summary of the distributions of the
elements (Cr, Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni, Cd, As, and Hg) found in the soil
samples from the study area. As shown in Table 6, except for
Cd concentrations, heavy metal concentrations were higher in
the soil samples than of those from the local soil background
samples: with higher mean concentrations being observed for
Cr (88.61 mg kg−1), Cu (46.92 mg kg−1), Zn (104.24 mg kg−1),
Pb (819.67 mg kg−1), Ni (28.40 mg kg−1), As (8.57 mg kg−1),
and Hg (0.12 mg kg−1). The distribution of mean values and
standard deviation showed an abnormal distribution of the
chemical data, which is consistent with the conclusion in the
paper (Lu et al. 2015). Large standard deviations indicate that
there were wide variations in the concentrations in the study
area soils, which could have been caused by the mining and
smelting processes in the study area.
As can be seen from Fig. 2, concentrations of most heavy
metals were significantly higher in the soil samples near the
mining and smelting areas than the background concentra-
tions for the study area, Jilin Province (Li 2010), and China
(Li 2010). The mean concentrations of the elements (Cr, Cu,
Zn, Pb, Ni, Cd, As, and Hg) were 1.42, 4.09, 1.23, 40.46, 1.32,
0.79, 1.41, and 2.96 times, respectively, than the background
values for the study area. The mean concentrations of the
elements were higher than the background concentrations
for Jilin Province (1.83, 3.11, 1.69, 36.99, 1.42, 1.56, 1.44,
and 3.47 times, respectively). And the mean concentrations
Contamination degree Rank RIb Contamination degree
Slight pollution 1 <150 Slight pollution
Moderate pollution 2 150–300 Moderate pollution
Significant pollution 3 300–600 Strong pollution
Strong pollution
Extremely strong pollution 4 >600 Extremely strong pollution
were higher than the background concentrations for China
(1.64, 2.34, 1.55, 34.73, 1.21, 2.00, 0.93, and 3.02 times,
respectively). Combined with the location of samplings, it
was obvious that the gold tailings from the gold extraction
and smelting processes contain highly toxic heavy metals,
such as Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Hg. Once deposited, the tailings
undergo chemical weathering, releasing toxic metals into the
water, soil, and organisms, which could be a great cause for
concern.
The guideline values for heavy metal concentrations ac-
cording to the China Environmental Quality Standard for
Soils (SEPAC 1995) are shown in Table 6. Approximately
68.4% of Cr, 36.8% of Cu, 57.9% of Zn, 15.8% of Pb,
89.5% of Ni, 79.0% of Cd, 89.5% of As, and 63.2% of Hg
were less than the class I levels. Based on the theory of the
single factor index method, these parts of heavy metal con-
centrations met the class I standard. The percentage of eight
trace elements that were less than the class II levels corre-
sponds with Cr, Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni, Cd, As, and Hg (100, 94.7,
94.7, 26.3, 94.7, 94.7, 94.7, 94.7%, respectively), which mean
that the most heavy metal concentrations in samples, except
for the Pb concentrations, met the class II standard. We also
detected that 57.9% of Pb exceeded the class III levels. Thus,
we speculate that the study area is severely polluted by Pb and
Hg and slightly polluted with Cu. However, there is almost a
complete lack of pollution from Cr, Zn, Ni, Cd, and As.
The mean Pb concentration was more than 40 times that of
the local background concentration. As shown in Fig. 2 and
Table 6, Pb concentrations were very high in the soil near the
gold mining and smelting areas, but were low in samples from
soil collected far away from mining areas. Furthermore, Li
et al. (2005) found that the content of Pb in the ore material
is 440.7 mg kg−1 (Li et al. 2005), which is far higher than the
local background value. Thus, it suggested that Pb was most
likely a waste by-product from mining activities.
The mean Hg concentration in the study area was
0.12 mg kg−1, which was three times higher than the back-
ground concentration. However, the mean Hg concentration
was still below the recommended class I of the Soil
Environmental Quality Standard (GB15618-1995) set by the
State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPAC
1995). Thus, it suggested that the study area was almost not
Table 6 Descriptive statistics, geo-accumulation index, and enrichment factors concerning heavy metal content of the soil samples

Samples Cr Cu Zn Pb Ni Cd As Hg

Ca Igeo EF C Igeo EF C Igeo EF C Igeo EF C Igeo EF C Igeo EF C Igeo EF C Igeo EF

YT1–1 55.66 −0.19 0.82 41.32 0.75 3.31 87.44 −0.32 0.94 433.80 3.39 19.66 25.05 −0.28 1.07 0.21 −0.80 1.13 6.71 0.63 1.04 0.06 0.44 1.37
YT1–2 74.05 0.22 0.81 51.93 1.08 3.10 92.41 −0.24 0.74 653.40 3.98 22.05 27.65 −0.14 0.88 0.21 −0.26 1.23 9.75 0.58 0.75 0.15 1.77 2.55
YT1–3 44.05 −0.53 0.24 50.95 1.05 1.52 135.20 0.31 0.55 1743.00 5.40 29.51 18.28 −0.74 0.29 0.26 −0.42 0.55 8.74 0.91 0.47 0.04 −0.32 0.30
YT2–1 86.61 0.45 2.16 46.92 0.93 6.38 65.36 −0.74 1.20 29.35 −0.50 2.26 37.35 0.29 2.70 0.03 −2.53 0.58 2.03 −2.32 0.23 0.15 1.76 5.79
YT2–2 254.80 2.00 3.13 93.03 1.92 6.25 275.00 1.33 2.49 538.10 3.70 20.45 29.85 −0.03 1.07 0.13 0.28 2.01 14.20 −0.12 0.52 0.04 −0.24 0.71
YT2–3 121.50 0.93 1.71 28.76 0.23 2.21 89.02 −0.29 0.92 116.50 1.49 5.08 37.00 0.28 1.51 0.10 0.10 2.03 12.50 −0.42 0.48 0.25 2.49 5.45
YT2–4 68.90 0.12 0.57 103.60 2.07 4.72 114.00 0.06 0.70 5184.00 6.97 133.57 30.18 −0.01 0.73 0.31 0.62 1.73 18.00 1.18 0.87 0.17 1.88 2.11
YT2–5 91.75 0.53 1.27 39.25 0.67 2.97 82.11 −0.41 0.84 502.90 3.60 21.57 23.14 −0.40 0.93 0.09 −1.10 0.88 5.47 −0.65 0.41 0.08 0.79 1.65
YT2–6 66.14 0.06 0.66 32.82 0.42 1.78 130.10 0.25 0.95 333.60 3.01 10.22 27.59 −0.14 0.79 0.16 −0.51 0.94 8.20 0.19 0.52 0.07 0.62 1.04
YT1–4 114.50 0.85 1.19 21.84 −0.17 1.24 69.76 −0.65 0.53 28.32 −0.55 0.91 41.63 0.45 1.26 0.18 −1.04 0.68 5.68 0.38 0.62 0.07 0.57 1.06
YT1–5 100.90 0.67 1.47 26.53 0.11 2.11 102.50 −0.09 1.10 27.13 −0.61 1.22 39.82 0.39 1.68 0.14 −0.91 1.05 6.23 0.07 0.70 0.12 1.40 2.65
YT2–7 56.44 −0.17 0.93 32.91 0.42 2.97 65.15 −0.75 0.79 670.10 4.02 34.26 17.62 −0.79 0.85 0.13 −1.38 0.85 4.48 −0.13 0.69 0.18 2.03 4.65
YT2–8 68.81 0.11 0.75 32.52 0.40 1.93 121.40 0.15 0.97 705.20 4.09 23.70 20.81 −0.55 0.66 0.09 −1.21 0.64 5.07 −0.65 0.32 0.01 −1.91 0.20
YT1–7 72.20 0.18 0.93 72.23 1.55 5.09 100.40 −0.12 0.95 1456.00 5.14 58.04 20.62 −0.56 0.77 0.18 −0.64 1.12 7.53 0.37 0.76 0.04 −0.21 0.77
YT2–11 67.35 0.08 1.24 56.02 1.19 5.62 95.77 −0.19 1.30 899.00 4.44 51.03 21.15 −0.53 1.13 0.12 −1.25 1.04 4.92 −0.14 0.76 0.05 0.00 1.26
YT2–9 70.10 0.14 1.47 41.99 0.77 4.80 87.97 −0.31 1.36 919.70 4.47 59.53 22.05 −0.47 1.34 0.10 −1.46 1.02 4.24 −0.53 0.67 0.08 0.76 2.43
YT2–10 82.17 0.37 1.69 34.17 0.47 3.83 97.21 −0.17 1.47 859.40 4.38 54.51 24.44 −0.32 1.46 0.11 −1.79 0.80 3.38 −0.32 0.75 0.52 3.52 16.14
YT1–6 146.80 1.21 1.78 41.47 0.75 2.74 100.70 −0.12 0.90 54.78 0.40 2.05 54.51 0.84 1.92 0.16 −0.72 0.99 7.10 0.25 0.66 0.23 2.32 4.17
YT2–12 40.84 −0.64 0.35 43.18 0.81 2.03 69.09 −0.66 0.44 419.40 3.34 11.15 20.91 −0.54 0.52 0.13 1.29 2.84 28.60 −0.06 0.38 0.02 −1.32 0.24
Min 40.84 21.84 65.15 27.13 17.62 0.03 2.03 0.01
Max 254.80 103.60 275.00 5184.00 54.51 0.31 28.60 0.52
Mean 88.61 46.92 104.24 819.67 28.40 0.15 8.57 0.12
SD 46.97 21.03 44.84 1125.52 9.43 0.06 6.07 0.12
CV, % 0.53 0.45 0.43 1.37 0.33 0.43 0.71 0.95
BT1–1 62.61 11.47 84.98 20.26 21.57 0.1872 6.07 0.041
Background in Jilinb 48.29 15.1 61.79 22.16 20.07 0.0951 5.93 0.035
Background in Chinac 53.9 20 67.4 23.6 23.4 0.0741 9.2 0.0402
Class I leveld 90 35 100 35 40 0.2 15 0.15
Class II levele 300 100 250 300 50 0.3 25 0.5
Class III levelf 400 400 500 500 200 1 30 1.5

a
Unit: milligrams per kilogram
b
Soil element background values of Jilin (Li 2010)
c
Soil element background values of China (Li 2010)
d
The Class I level of heavy metal concentration for the China Environmental Quality Standard for Soils (SEPAC 1995)
e
The Class II level of heavy metal concentration for the China Environmental Quality Standard for Soils (SEPAC 1995)
f
The Class III level of heavy metal concentration for the China Environmental Quality Standard for Soils (SEPAC 1995)
Environ Sci Pollut Res
Environ Sci Pollut Res
Fig. 2 Concentrations and background values of heavy metals
polluted by Hg. As shown in Table 6 and Fig. 2, the distribu-
tion of mercury was inconsistent with the regional distribution
of mining activities, indicating that the Hg distribution in the
study area was more likely influenced by other human activ-
ities. But we found varying degrees of mercury pollution de-
gree with different extraction methods in papers. For example,
Wu et al. (2010) studied Hg and Cd concentrations up to 2.75
and 0.55 mg kg−1, respectively, in the soil of a neighboring
Xiaoqinling gold mine, in the Shaanxi Province of China (Wu
et al. 2010). Huang et al. (2012) also found severe Hg con-
tamination in the Mangniu River upstream of the Miyun
Reservoir (Huang et al. 2012). Li et al. (2014) found that the
mean Hg concentration in soils upstream of the Miyun
Reservoir was 30 times higher than the background concen-
tration (Li et al. 2014). The mines mentioned here use the
amalgamation leaching technique. However, Ding et al.
(2016) found almost no trace of mercury pollution in the soils
collected from the surface of the Wanzhuang gold mining area
(Ding et al. 2016), and the gold mine extraction method uses
cyanidation. In this study, we also found a similar conclusion
that there was almost no mercury pollution with the
cyanidation method.
However, the different gold extraction methods (amalgam-
ation and cyanidation) led to distinctive contamination

patterns. For the amalgamation method, a large amount of Hg
is used to separate the gold from pulp by forming an amalgam.
Coarse gold could then be extracted by heating the mercury
amalgam. Part of Hg enters the atmosphere in the form of
steam during three processes—the formation of the mercury
amalgam, the burning of the amalgam, and the refining of the
coarse gold (Dai 2004). The Hg in the atmosphere can enter
into the soil and water by atmospheric deposition. The
remaining Hg discharges into the soil and water with the
waste and tailings. Therefore, large amounts of Hg released
into the environment cause soil and water pollution.
Conversely, during cyanidation, an aqueous solution of
alkali metal cyanide as a solvent is used to leach the gold
from the ore, and then gold is extracted from the leached
liquid. No Hg is added at any point during the entire
process. Marcello et al. (2015) reported that mercury can be
reduced and eliminated by gravity concentration, flotation and
cyanidation (Marcello et al. 2015). Therefore, from the per-
spective of the production process, cyanidation has the ability
to reduce Hg pollution in gold mining. According to the above
discussions, the differences between amalgamation and
cyanidation are varying degrees of Hg contamination, with
cyanidation proving to reduce mercury pollution.
Analysis of pollution index
The geochemical accumulation index (Igeo) was used as a
reference for estimating the extent of metal pollution. The
Igeo values for Cr range from −0.64 to 2.00, Cu from −0.17
to 2.07, Zn from −0.74 to 1.33, Pb from −0.61 to 6.97, Ni from
−0.79 to 0.84, As from −2.53 to 1.29, Cd from −2.32 to 1.18,
and Hg from −1.39 to 3.52 (Table 6). The Judge standard for
contamination degrees are shown in Table 3. Based on
Tables 3 and 6, percentage figures of the Igeo class are present-
ed in Fig. 3. The Igeo values of Zn (−0.16 ± 0.48), Ni
(−0.17 ± 0.45), As (−0.72 ± 0.88), and Cd (−0.04 ± 0.75) were
less than zero, suggesting that the study area is not polluted by
these metals. The I geo values of Cr (0.34 ± 0.62), Cu
(0.81 ± 0.58), and Hg (0.86 ± 1.36) were less than 1, indicating
none to moderate pollution of the metals in the study area. As
shown in Figs. 3, 90% of Cr samples were in class 0 and 1,
demonstrating that most of the soils were not polluted with Cr.
With regard to Cu, 27% of the samples were moderately pol-
luted and 5% were moderately to strongly polluted. Regarding
Hg, 21, 16, and 5% of Igeo samples were in class 2, 3, and 4,
respectively, showing that the soils were moderately or strong-
ly polluted. Pb represented the highest values of Igeo, with
74% of the samples in class 4, 5, and 6, indicating they were
strongly or extremely polluted. The results indicate that there
was serious Pb pollution in the study area, followed by mod-
erate to no Hg and Cu pollution, which was consistent with the
results in previous paragraphs.
Environ Sci Pollut Res
The results of EF values for the metals are summarized in
Table 6. The EF values for the metals were 0.24–3.13 for Cr,
1.24–6.38 for Cu, 0.44–2.49 for Zn, 0.91–133.58 for Pb,
0.29–2.70 for Ni, 0.55–2.84 for As, 0.23–1.04 for Cd, and
0.20–16.14 for Hg. Overall, the average order of the EF values
for the metals was Pb (29.52) > Cu (3.40) > Hg (2.87) > Cr
(1.22) > As (1.16) > Ni (1.13) > Zn (1.01) > Cd (0.61). The EF
values provide similar information as Igeo. For Cr, As, Ni, Zn,
and Cd, there was no significant enrichment in the study area.
On the contrary, Pb, Cu, and Hg had accumulated significant-
ly. According to Zhang and Liu (2002), EF values ranging
from 0.05 to 1.5 indicate that the metal occurs entirely from
crustal materials or natural processes, whereas EF values
higher than 1.5 suggest that the sources are more likely a result
of anthropogenic activities. Thus, based on the EF average
values, the elements Cr, As, Ni, Zn, and Cd are most likely
derived from crustal materials or natural processes, whereas
the presence of the other elements Pb, Cu, and Hg are more
likely the result of anthropogenic activity.
Factor and cluster analysis
The principal component factor analysis was used for further
evaluation of the extent of metal contamination and source
identification. The results of the PCA of heavy metal contents
are shown in Table 7. The results showed that there were three
eigenvalues higher than 1, and these three factors explain
79.024% of the total variance. The first factor explains
30.489% of the total variance and presents high loading values
for Pb, Cd, Cu, and As. The second principal component
(PC2) is dominated by Cr and Zn and accounts for 25.906%
of the total variance, with high positive factor loadings for Cr
and Zn. The third component (PC3) describes 22.629% of the
total variance and is dominated by Hg and Ni.
PC1 could be better explained as the result of anthropogen-
ic activity, specifically derived from gold mine exploitation.
According to Fan (2012), major metal minerals in ore are
native gold, pyrite, galena, chalcopyrite, molybdenite, hema-
tite, etc. And Li et al. (2005) found that Pb, Cu, and As were
relatively concentrated in ore. Lead, Cu, and As may be re-
leased from the minerals that are associated with gold seams.
Generally, Cd shows a paragenetic relationship with Pb and
Cu. These elements can be released into the soils when waste
minerals experience weathering and leaching. At the same
time, heavy metal concentrations were high near the waste
dump, smelting factory, mill tailings, and bottom sediments
in the tailings pond, but decreased with distance from the
mining area. Considering the above rationales, PC1 may be
defined as having an anthropogenic component, whereas PC2
can be considered a measure of leaching of crustal materials
given that an important fraction of all the metals is lithogenic.
The mean concentrations of Zn and Cr were slightly higher
than the background values (1.23 times and 1.42 times,
Environ Sci Pollut Res
Fig. 3 Percentage of the levels of
geochemical accumulation index
for heavy metals
respectively). Furthermore, Zn and Cr concentrations were
high in samples from soil found upstream of the waste dump
and tailings. Thus, it can be concluded that the distribution of
these two elements was not affected by mining. Copper was
highly correlated with PC1 and moderately correlated with
PC2, indicating a mixed source from both lithogenic and an-
thropogenic inputs, whereas a mix of anthropogenic and nat-
ural activities can explain PC3. As shown in Table 6, Hg and
Ni concentrations in soil found upstream of the tailings pond
were higher, which may be affected by the parent materials of
the soils. Nickel, a trace element found in most coal used for
smelting, can be released during the process. Mercury can
evaporate into the atmosphere during extraction. Moreover,
Hg and Ni concentrations found in soils near the extracting
and smelting factory were higher. Therefore, the sources of Hg
and Ni could be divided into two groups, the source in the first
group being the parent materials of the soils, and the sources in
the other group being atmospheric deposition and mineral
exploitation/extraction.
The CA results for grouping soil samples are shown as a
dendrogram in Fig. 4. All 20 sampling sites were clustered
into three different groups. The soil samples in these groups
 Environ Sci Pollut Res

Table 7 Rotation factor loading matrix was different from groups I and II. While this sample may
Parameter PC1 a
PC2b
PC3 c be slightly affected by the overuse of fertilizers and pesticides,
it also indicates that the downstream tailings dam plays an
Pb 0.934 −0.097 0.015 important role in intercepting wastewater and tailings.
Cd 0.788 −0.118 −0.021
Cu 0.759 0.484 −0.075
As 0.526 0.210 −0.228 Analysis of the potential ecological risk assessment
Cr −0.136 0.929 0.287
Zn 0.215 0.874 −0.178 The ecological risk index results for the analyzed heavy
Hg 0.008 −0.169 0.841 metals are shown in Table 8. The highest Eir was less than
Ni −0.166 0.339 0.729 40 for Cr, Cu, Zn, Ni, and As in all of the soil samples, show-
Eigenvalues 2.439 2.072 1.410 ing that these metals posed only slight ecological risks. The
% Of variance 30.489 25.906 22.629 Cd Eir was between 9.00 and 101.91, and the mean Cd Eir
Cumulative % 30.489 56.394 79.024 was 48.71, indicating that it posed moderate ecological risk.
While 32% of Cd posed slight ecological risk, 58% posed
a,b,c
Three principal components extracted by principal component moderate ecological risk, and 10% posed significant risk.
analysis The Pb Eir ranged from 4.91 to 939.13, and the mean Pb Eir
was 148.49, presenting a significant ecological risk.
Furthermore, 58% of Pb posed significant, strong, and ex-
shared similar characteristics. Group I contained soil samples tremely strong ecological risk. The Hg Eir was between
from near the waste dump and bottom sediments from tailings, 16.00 and 686.67, and the mean Hg Eir was 161.82, indicating
mill tailings, and near the extracting and smelting factory. The that it posed a strong ecological risk. Meanwhile, 32, 26, and
samples in this group were located generally near the gold 10% of Hg posed significant, strong, and extremely strong
mining area that related to mine drainage and mining activity. ecological risk, respectively. In conclusion, the order of the
The results indicate that the concentration properties of heavy ecological risk from high to low is Hg, Pb, and Cd. A similar
metals in tailings and solid waste were similar, because they result was found in the paper (Wu et al. 2010), and those
all came from mining activities. The samples in group II were heavy metals in polluted soil in the Xiaoqinling gold mining
located far away from any mining activity and were the up- region of China can be ranked by severity of ecological risk as
stream of tailings. The results indicate that the upstream soil of follows: Hg > Cd > Pb (Wu et al. 2010). However, there were
the tailings pond was somewhat polluted with heavy metals some differences between the geochemical accumulation in-
and was affected by the parent material. Group III contained dex results and the ecological risk results. The former revealed
the only sample downstream from the tailings pond, which that the study area was seriously polluted with Pb, while the

Fig. 4 Dendogram of cluster

analysis on soil samples
Environ Sci Pollut Res

Table 8 Potential ecological risk

index of samples Samples Eira RIb Levels

Cr Cu Zn Pb Ni As Cd Hg

YT1–1 2.63 12.60 1.20 78.59 6.17 8.60 69.58 81.33 260.70 2
YT1–2 3.49 15.83 1.27 118.37 6.81 12.50 67.42 204.00 429.69 3
YT1–3 2.08 15.53 1.86 315.76 4.50 11.21 84.39 48.00 483.32 3
YT2–1 4.09 14.30 0.90 5.32 9.20 2.60 9.00 202.67 248.08 2
YT2–2 12.02 28.36 3.78 97.48 7.35 18.21 41.46 50.67 259.32 2
YT2–3 5.73 8.77 1.22 21.11 9.11 16.03 33.58 337.33 432.88 3
YT2–4 3.25 31.59 1.57 939.13 7.43 23.08 101.91 221.33 1329.29 5
YT2–5 4.33 11.97 1.13 91.11 5.70 7.01 28.66 104.00 253.90 2
YT2–6 3.12 10.01 1.79 60.43 6.80 10.51 51.43 92.00 236.09 2
YT1–4 5.40 6.66 0.96 5.13 10.25 7.28 58.39 89.33 183.41 2
YT1–5 4.76 8.09 1.41 4.91 9.81 7.99 47.13 158.67 242.77 2
YT2–7 2.66 10.03 0.89 121.39 4.34 5.74 41.09 245.33 431.50 3
YT2–8 3.25 9.91 1.67 127.75 5.13 6.50 28.77 16.00 198.98 2
YT1–7 3.41 22.02 1.38 263.77 5.08 9.65 58.16 52.00 415.47 3
YT2–11 3.18 17.08 1.32 162.86 5.21 6.31 40.86 60.00 296.82 2
YT2–9 3.31 12.80 1.21 166.61 5.43 5.44 31.20 101.33 327.33 3
YT2–10 3.88 10.42 1.34 155.69 6.02 4.33 36.04 686.67 904.38 4
YT1–6 6.92 12.64 1.38 9.92 13.43 9.10 53.34 300.00 406.74 3
YT2–12 1.93 13.16 0.95 75.98 5.15 36.67 43.13 24.00 200.96 2
a
The potential ecological risk index for a single metal
b
The potential ecological risk index for a number of metals

latter found that the ecological risk degree of Hg was higher
than that of Pb. The results were caused by two different
reasons: one is element content and the other is toxicity.
Thus, Pb is regarded as a main pollutant with a high content
in the study area. Conversely, even though its concentration is
poor, mercury has strong toxicity to human and wild organ-
isms (Odumo et al. 2014). Thus, it is the Hg pollution in the
study area that is of great concern.
The mean risk index (RI) in all of the samples was 396.93,
showing that the metals posed strong ecological risks, with
most of that risk attributable to Hg and Pb. The mean RIs in
soils near the waste dump, smelting factory, and bottom sed-
iments from the tailings were 391.24, 398.22, and 335.69,
respectively, representing strong ecological risk for the soils.
It is important to note that the RI was higher than 600 in the
soil near the extraction and smelting factory (YT2–4), indicat-
ing that the metals posed a very strong ecological risk. The RI
values in mill tailings were 327.33 and 904.38, and the mean
RI was 615.8, representing extremely strong ecological risk.
The difference of the two mill tailings samples may be caused
by different dumping times and experiment error. The RI in
soils downstream from the tailings pond was 200.96, which
was lower than the RI in soils from upstream of the tailings
pond and most of the other samples, indicating that the tailing
dam plays an important role in intercepting the heavy metals
of tailings. This conclusion agrees with the above cluster
analysis results. Overall, the results of the potential ecological
risk index for the individual metals and for all of the metals
show that Hg and Pb pollution strongly threatens the ecolog-
ical health of the environment in the mining area. Pollution,
along with the accumulation of heavy metals, becomes more
and more serious, because of the hysteresis, concealment, and
long half-lives associated with heavy metals. Thus, heavy
metal pollution is of great concern and the tailings from min-
ing processes, even discharged into the tailings pond, are also
of great concern and care should be taken to ensure they are
properly handled after stopping production.
Conclusion
Gold mining activities of the Haigou gold mine have caused
the study area to become seriously contaminated with heavy
metals. This was especially true for Pb, Hg, and Cu, for which
observed concentrations were higher than of the background
concentrations (the mean Pb concentration was 40 times that
of the local background concentration). The result also sug-
gests that the cyanidation method is helpful for reducing mer-
cury pollution (the mean Hg concentration was less than class
I of the China Environmental Quality Standard for Soils, al-
though it was three times higher than the background concen-
tration). The geochemical accumulation index indicated

serious Pb pollution and moderate to no Hg and Cu pollution.
The EF results showed that clear signs of enrichment are pres-
ent for Pb, Cu, and Hg, and the elements are more likely to be
present as a result of anthropogenic activity. Factor analysis
results showed that there were three heavy metal sources to be
identified: (1) Pb, Cd, Cu, and As were derived from anthro-
pogenic activity; (2) Cr and Zn were mainly derived from
natural processes; and (3) Hg and Ni had mixed origins from
both anthropogenic and natural activities. Cluster analysis
clearly distinguished the contributing site responsible for the
enrichment of metals. The result suggests that the concentra-
tion properties of heavy metals in tailings and solid waste from
mining activities were similar and that the tailings dam plays
an important role in intercepting gold mill tailings. The results
of the potential ecological risk index indicated that the study
area posed a potentially strong ecological risk. Furthermore,
Pb and Hg (due to high concentration and high toxicity, re-
spectively) are major pollutants within this risk index. Thus,
Pb and Hg pollution should be considered to be of great
concern.
In conclusion, cyanidation for gold extraction is helpful in
reducing mercury pollution. Moreover, the tailings dams can
effectively intercept heavy metals from tailings from moving
too far downstream. Thus, mine managers should strengthen
seepage control of downstream dams of the tailings. Once the
gold mining and smelting activities cease, mining chats and
mill tailings should be properly handled.
Acknowledgments This work was jointly supported from Project
201511 supported by the Environmental Protection Department of Jilin
Province and Project 2016207 supported by the Graduate Innovation
Fund of Jilin University. We are most grateful to Mr. Xinhao Bao and
Yongkai An for their assistance in field study and laboratory testing. We
are most grateful to the anonymous reviewers whose critical comments
have greatly improved the manuscript.
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