Potentially Toxic Elements in ASGM

Description

Data indicating levels of potentially toxic elements in artisanal gold mined-impacted soil

Steps to reproduce

Soil samples (0-30 cm) were collected from the ten sampling sites (S1-S10) using a clean Teflon-coated soil auger. At each site, three sampling spots were randomly selected to capture within-site spatial variability. At each spot, several subsamples were collected and homogenized by bulking to obtain a single composite sample. Consequently, three independent composite samples were collected per site for subsequent laboratory analysis. Samples were air dried at room temperature for 14 days, crushed, ground into powder with laboratory mortar and pestle and then sieved through a 2 mm mesh sieve to remove relatively all particles (> 2 mm in size) from the dried soils. The fine earth fraction (< 2 mm) was used for the analysis of PTEs. The soils were analysed for pseudo-total concentrations of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and mercury (Hg) using atomic absorption spectrophotometry following aqua regia digest (69 % concentrated, 15.44M HNO3 + 37 % concentrated, 12 M HCl, v/v ratio: 1:3) .

Institutions

• University of Cape Coast

  Central, Cape Coast

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