Soil pollution of abandoned tailings in one zinc antimony mine and heavy metal accumulation characteristics of dominant plants

Abstract

This paper analyzes heavy metal content in the soil of abandonedtailings and dominant plants, and absorption and bioconcentrationcapability as well as cumulative characteristics of the four kinds ofdominant plants such as Phragmites australis, Typha angustifolia,Miscanthus sinensis, Equisetum fluviatile for heavy metals Pb, Zn, Sb,Cu, Cr, Cd, As and Mn through investigating samples of the zinc antimonyore abandoned tailings. The results manifest that investigated eightheavy metals contents in the abandoned tailings all exceed soilbackground values of both Guangxi and the whole nation. Abandonedtailings soil is polluted most seriously by Mn, Sb and Cd, followed byAs, zinc and Pb.