Abstract
Environmental pollution caused by abandoned gold mines is a serious issue that is affecting the environment as well as human health. There are a lot of abandoned gold mines globally that are not rehabilitated. In South Africa, most of these mines operated during the old order rights law and most of them were left unrehabilitated after mining. However, the government is now left with the responsibility of rehabilitating those abandoned gold mines. The problem is that gold mining does not only introduce gold element to the surface but also introduces toxic metals to the surface. Thus, increasing their concentrations on the environment. This makes it important to determine the concentrations of toxic metals in the water and soil matrices. This study aimed to assess the concentration levels of toxic metals (Al, As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn, and Fe) of the pond water situated near Princess gold mine dump (Gauteng province, South Africa) and determine the concentrations of toxic elements near the dump. The concentrations of toxic metals were determined by analyzing water and soil samples using an Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES). Additional determination of physical properties for water and soil samples and analyses using X-ray Diffraction (XRD), X-ray Fluorescence (XRF), and microwave digestion of soil samples was done. The achieve this aim, specific objectives were done...
M.Sc. (Chemistry)