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Humans continually engage with an environment rich in potentially harmful chemicals. These are introduced to our bodies through inhalation, ingestion, or skin contact. These chemicals exist in various forms, such as air and environmental pollutants, agricultural chemicals, organic solvents, and heavy metals.
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Metal ions can be separated from one another by complexation with organic ligands–the chelating agent– to form uncharged chelates. Here, the chelating agent must contain hydrophobic groups and behave as a weak acid, losing a proton to bind with the metal. Since most organic ligands used in this process are insoluble or undergo oxidation in the aqueous phase, the chelating agent is initially added to the organic phase and extracted into the aqueous phase. The metal-ligand complex is...
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Copper mining in the eastern Amazon: an environmental perspective on potentially toxic elements.

Suellen Nunes de Araújo1, Sílvio Junio Ramos2, Gabriel Caixeta Martins2

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Environmental Geochemistry and Health
|October 22, 2021
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Mining generates potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in soil. While copper tailings showed elevated cobalt, copper, and nickel, overall ecological risk was low, indicating safe surrounding urban and pasture soils.

Keywords:
Contamination factorEcological riskEnvironmental safetyGeoaccumulationSoil pollution

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Area of Science:

  • Environmental Science
  • Geochemistry
  • Soil Science

Background:

  • Mining produces tailings containing potentially toxic elements (PTEs), posing environmental challenges.
  • Assessing soil quality near mining sites is crucial for environmental management and risk assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare PTE concentrations, fertility, and texture in copper tailings and surrounding native, urban, and pasture soils.
  • To evaluate soil contamination and ecological risk using various indices and compare with established reference values.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of 11 PTEs (As, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mo, Ni, Pb, Zn) in tailings and soils.
  • Calculation of contamination factor (CF), degree of contamination (Cdeg), potential ecological risk index (RI), geoaccumulation index (Igeo), and pollution load index (PLI).
  • Comparison of PTE levels with soil prevention values, quality reference values, global averages, and upper continental crust concentrations.

Main Results:

  • Copper tailings showed elevated levels of cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), and nickel (Ni) exceeding prevention and reference values.
  • Despite high PTEs in tailings, the pollution load index (PLI) and potential ecological risk index (RI) indicated low ecological risk.
  • Soils in urban and pasture areas did not exceed Brazilian National Environment Council prevention values for any of the 11 PTEs.

Conclusions:

  • Elevated PTEs in tailings are linked to the area's geological properties and mineralogy.
  • Mining-affected areas, specifically tailings, require careful management despite low overall ecological risk.
  • Surrounding urban and pasture soils near the copper mining complex are safe regarding the analyzed PTEs.