THE CURRENT STATUS OF NUTRITION AND HEAVY METALS IN SOIL-PLANT SYSTEM OF COPPER MINE TAILINGS

摘要

Field investigation and sampling of soil, tailings and plants were carried out in Dexing Copper Mine, Jiangxi Province of China. The findings indicated that the fertility of tailings dam and soils was very poor. Physical and chemical conditions of the soil and tailings have to be improved with great care for revegetation. The main pollution problem was high content copper. Concentration of copper, lead and cadmium in plants exceeded the National Food Hygiene Standards. It is recommended that crops planting should be forbidden to avoid food chain contamination. Land was damaged directly and indirectly by mining activities. Vast land was allocated for waste disposal. Mining activity often results in environmental damage. Remedying such damage in mining areas has caught worldwide attention (Williamson and Johnson, 1981; Tao, 1997a; Wang et al., 1997). As a medium of plant growth, environmental properties and nutrient content of soil are the most important considerations in alleviating ecological damage (Williamson and Johnson, 1981; Tao, 1997b; Chen et al., 1998). The environment of the tailings pool of copper mine was very poor and the large amount of land had been destroyed. Therefor, the improvement of the environment in mining areas is a big challenge to the research and practice of environment protection today. In this paper, some soil and tailings properties, as well as heavy metals concentrations in soil (tailing) or plant system in Dexing copper mine are briefly presented.