Assessment of Heavy Metals in Soil Samples from Mining Site in Gura Topp, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria

Abstract

Mining activities have been seen to greatly expose heavy metals to the surface of the earth and largely exposing soil and water bodies to  the toxic metals thereby causing adverse effect to human due to its bioaccumulation. This studies is aimed at assessing the levels of  contamination of 12 soil samples to determine the concentration of 16 heavy metals in Gura Topp Jos Plateau. Fluorescence    spectrometers(XRF) was used to determine the level of the toxic metals in the soil samples. The results revealed that Arsenic (As) with  mean concentration of 38.27 ± 2.17 ppm, Gold (Au) with mean concentration of 2.32 ± 0.51 ppm, Cobalt (Co) with mean concentration of  202.23 ± 20.94 ppm, Cupper (Cu) with mean concentration of 248.20 ±4.52 ppm, Iron (Fe) with mean concentration of 58930.80 ± 8.92  ppm, Mercury (Hg) with mean concentration of 3.67 ± 1.12 ppm, Manganese (Mn) with mean concentration of 332.55 ± 15. Ppm ,  Molybdenum (Mo) with mean concentration of 48.68 ± 1.53 ppm ,Nickel (Ni) with mean concentration of 88.64 ± 4.81 ppm , Lead (Pb) with  mean concentration of 135.54 ± 2.82 ppm, Rubidium (Rb) with mean concentration of 340.65 ± 1.77 ppm , Selenium (Se) with mean concentration of 1.83 ± 0.27 ppm, Strontium (Sr) with mean concentration of 26.58 ± 0.59 ppm , Tungsten (W) with mean concentration of  73.17 ± 5.08 ppm , Zirconium (Zr) with mean concentration of 4500.78 ± 4.80 ppm and Zinc (Zn) with mean concentration of 138.51 ± 3.19  ppm. These results indicates a high level of toxic metals that will cause health challenge to consumers of crops produced from those  areas as reported by WHO.