Heavy Metal Pollution: The Environmental Impact of Artisanal Gold Mining on Bagega Village of Zamfara State, Nigeria.

Abstract

Following the recent incident of lead poisoning in Zamfara State of Nigeria, interest in the levels of heavy metals in environmental samples from the affected areas has increased. In this regard, we collected and analysed water and soil/sediment samples of Bagega artisanal gold mining region using flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS) to assess the levels of heavy metals. Samples were obtained from different water sources (wells, boreholes and surface pond) and soil/sediment of Bagega where environmental contamination was expected to be high due to artisanal gold mining activities. Samples were also collected in Anka, a non-artisanal gold mining environment, for comparison. It was observed that the water samples of the study area were contaminated with Pb and Ni, but Hg contamination was only observed in the water samples of Bagega. Surprisingly, higher contamination levels of Pb and Ni were recorded in reference water samples (Anka) compared to the water samples of Bagega. Very high contamination of all soil/sediment samples by Pb was also observed in the study area. High Hg contamination level was only recorded in the soil samples at the sedimentation zone (Bagega ore-processing site). In general, the water and soil/sediment samples of Bagega vicinity were far more contaminated compared to samples from Anka. This might not be unconnected with the