Pollution Assessment and Mining at Jazan Coastline, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The present work aims to evaluate and document the heavy metal distribution along Jazan coastline, southwest Saudi Arabia. Moreover, a trial for mining minerals from seawater has been performed where solvent extraction of a spike solution containing copper, cobalt and nickel has been investigated to attain the optimal extraction conditions. The optimum conditions are found to be 7 M hydrochloric acid concentration, 5 M [H+] for 3 min shaking time with Cyanex 923 solvent conc. of 0.1 M (1:1 aqueous/organic phase ratio) at temp. 25°C. These conditions realized 92.5% copper extraction as well as 95.6% and 96.2% for cobalt and nickel extraction respectively.