Scholarly record

ASSESSMENT OF THE ACCUMULATION OF CHEMICAL ELEMENTS IN MOSSES FROM THE AREAS OF WASTE DISPOSAL FROM GOLD MINING (THE CASE OF KEMEROVO REGION, RUSSIA)

Antonina Mezhibor, Leonid Rikhvanov, Natalia Baranovskaya

Abstract

The areas of gold mining in Kemerovo region in Russia are highly transformed by technogenic processes connected both with the ore extraction and processing (dressing). In Kemerovo region there are two former gold mining areas characterizing by strongly altered landscape and pollution by toxic chemical elements. There are two types of waste storage in these territories пїЅ waste dumps and tailings. The waste storage sites have definite impact on the surrounding environment leading to the changes in geochemical features of the environmental components. Being excellent biological object for the research of anthropogenic impact, mosses are widely used for the assessment of the rate of changes in environment under technogenic load. The study of geochemical features of mosses Polytricum growing close to the waste storage sites in Kemerovo region (Ursk and Komsomolsk mining areas) allowed to define some peculiarities of the accumulation of specific elements which are characteristic for the regions of gold mining. The data processing for the concentrations of 60 chemical elements determined by ICP-MS allowed assessing the accumulation of chemical elements in mosses due to the impact of waste disposals. The results showed that mosses accumulated high quantities of Zn, As, Se, Ag, Cd, Sb, Ba, Au, Hg, Pb, and Bi in the Ursk area and As, Se, Cd, Sb, Au in the Komsomolsk area. The calculations of the enrichment factor by Sc in relation to the element concentrations in the continental crust indicated that the accumulation of some toxic elements causes the decrease in the accumulation of essential elements in mosses (B, Na, Mg, K, Ca). These data allows considering these toxic elements as elements-antagonists for essential elements. The enrichment of mosses by most of chemical elements testifies about the intensive accumulation of dust from mining wastes by mosses.

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