Assessment of Abandoned Mine Impacts on Concentrations and Distribution of Heavy Metals in Surface Sediments of Catchments Around Sungai Lembing Abandoned Tin Mine

Influence of abandoned tin mine on concentrations, accumulation, mobility and distribution of (Fe, Cu, Ni, and Zn) in surface sediments of Sg. Lembing catchments were investigated in this work. Sediment samples were collected within an abandoned mine of Sg. Lembing Kuantan and also at vicinity area. The sequential extraction method was used to extract anthropogenic metals in sediments and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to determine the metal concentrations. Results indicate all metal in easily or freely leachable and exchangeable (ELFE), Acid reduction (AR) and organic oxidation (OO) fractions were higher than ambient concentrations which indicate heavily metals load from ex-mining into surrounding aquatic environments. The sequential extraction results showed Cu and Zn were the highest in EFLE fraction, which means these metals are more capable of leaching and cause adverse effects to aquatic organisms than Fe and Ni. On the other hand, Fe, Cu, Zn and Ni were detected high in OO fraction. Analysis of variance (one-way ANOVA) shows that metal concentrations in each fraction were significant varies between stations. Sediment contamination assessment result shows that sediments samples that receive direct acid mine drainage (AMD) water have the highest metals concentrations due to leaching and erosion process.