Journal ArticleDOI
Environmental impact of mining activity on the pollution of the Medjerda River, north-west Tunisia
TLDR
In the Fej Hcine mining area of north-west Tunisia, the Medjerda River and its principal tributary, El Melah, are polluted by heavy metals and arsenic as discussed by the authors.Abstract:
In the Fej Hcine mining area of north-west Tunisia, the Medjerda River and its principal tributary, El Melah, are polluted by heavy metals and arsenic. The geochemical studies undertaken have indicated pronounced falls in the concentrations of metals since the mining activities ceased, although the river sediments still contain higher levels than the local host rocks, particularly arsenic and zinc. At the Tunisia/Algeria border, arsenic concentrations in the Medjerda waters can exceed 1 mg/l. Leaching tests on samples of ore, flotation tailings and an arseniferous mass indicate that whilst Zn, Pb, Cu and Cd concentrations do not exceed 1 mg/l in the leachate solutions, arsenic levels reach 5, 344 and 9,400 mg/l respectively. The study has shown that the pollution originates not only from the mining activities but also from the mineral occurrences present in the mining district and from another source within Algeria.read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
Determination of heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, Zn) by ICP-OES and their speciation in Algerian Mediterranean Sea sediments after a five-stage sequential extraction procedure
Ahmed A. Alomary,Soraya Belhadj +1 more
TL;DR: It was observed that the investigated samples were not contaminated with Cr, Cu, and Fe, moderately contaminated with Ni, Pb, and Cd, and contaminated with Cd in some sites, and compared to Earth’s crust values points out that the authors' samples were relatively unpolluted with respect to the heavy metals investigated.
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Environment impact of heavy metals on urban soil in the vicinity of industrial area of Baoji city, P.R. China
Xiaoping Li,Chunchang Huang +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the concentration of Pb, Zn, Cu, Cr, Ni heavy metals and the contents of characteristics in soil from industrial area of Baoji city were determined with X-ray fluorescence method.
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The Oued Mellègue: Mining activity, stream sediments and dispersion of base metals in natural environments, North-western Tunisia
A. Mlayah,E. Ferreira da Silva,Fernando Rocha,Ch. Ben Hamza,Abdelkrim Charef,Fernando Noronha +5 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the principal component analysis (PCA) statistical method was used to understand the processes of toxic metals circulation in the natural environment and showed that the major and trace metals fate and transfer from contamination sources into the river systems are based on three main factors: i) a mineralogical component which is representative of regional rocks (shales, siliciclastics, limestones, and dolostones), ii) a residual assemblage concerning the ore mineral micro phases (phosphorites and common and complex sulphides of Pb and Zn)
Journal ArticleDOI
Heavy metals as indicators for Holocene sediment provenance in a semi-arid Mediterranean catchment in northern Tunisia
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated sediment provenance in the Medjerda River and its tributaries and found that the sedimentary successions in the mid-Medjerda valley mainly consist of sediments originating from the subcatchments of the semi-arid South.
Journal ArticleDOI
Trace elements in different marine sediment fractions of the Gulf of Tunis (Central Mediterranean Sea)
Noureddine Zaaboub,Walid Oueslati,Mohamed Amine Helali,Saadi Abdeljaouad,F. Javier Huertas,Alberto Lopez Galindo +5 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors measured the concentrations of major and trace elements (Al, Ti, P, K, Mg, Na, Ca, S, Fe, Cl, V, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, Br, Rb, Sr, Y, Zr, Nb, I, Ba and Pb) in three different fractions of 45 surficial sediments using wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence.