Identification of groundwater contamination sources of Lakan lead and zinc mine, Khomain, Iran

Altogether 20 groundwater samples were collected around the Lakan Pb and Zn mine in Iran. Samples were analyzed for 8 constituents including Fe, Pb, Hg, Mn, Zn, CN, SO4 and Cl using standard method. The results show that the average concentrations of constituents were 0.01, 0.60, 0.10, 0.01, 0.40, 35, 0.01 and 5.95 mg/kg for Fe, Mn, Pb, Zn, Hg, SO4, CN and Cl, respectively. The computed contamination index ranged between 2.38 and 443. It was concluded that contamination index shows a medium to high contaminated situation for Pb and Hg in groundwater around the tailings dam. Based on a multivariate analysis, four main sources of these hydrochemical data were identified. (1) Zn, Mn, TDS and SO4 have both natural and anthropogenic sources; (2) Hg constituent represents a natural source and Pb shows a anthropogenic source due to Lakan mine; (3) CN and Fe have an anthropogenic source and mainly originated from the plant processing; (4) Cl represents a natural source.