Environmental Assessment of Artisanal Gold Mining on Soils of a Community within Southwestern, Nigeria

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A. Laniyan, T. O. Kolawole, S. S. Kenjinu This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3875505/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Artisanal gold mining a means of livelihood comes with its public health challenge in most Sub-Saharan African countries. The study therefore evaluates extent of artisanal gold mining pollution on the environment and public health in communities within Ilesha Osun Nigeria. The study was field and laboratory based. Thirty–five (35) top soil samples (0-20cm) were randomly collected around Ijana, Itagunmodi, Epe, Igbadae and Ifewara communities. Samples were analyzed using an Agilent 700 series Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) for the 35 element suite in Acme Laboratory, Canada. Statistical evaluation was done using geo–accumulation index, enrichment Factor, contamination factor, pollution load index, contamination degree and nemerow pollution Index. The heavy metal pollution level in soils was assessed using potential ecological risk index. Human health risk was assessed using hazard index, carcinogenic risk index and non–carcinogenic risk index. Results of metal content in the soils revealed wide variation in heavy metal concentration. The mean metal content of soil when compared with crustal average was higher with decreasing order Cr > Bi > Sb > Sn > W > As > Mo > Ag > Cd. The results of the contamination indices carried out showed that Bi, Sc and V contributed greatly to very high contamination of the soils. Health risk assessment revealed that the children are more prone to non–carcinogenic diseases than adults in the area. However, carcinogenic health risk showed that adults are prone to this type of health risk through oral ingestion of Cr. This study therefore uncovered that heavy metals extending over large areas may pose great threat to the environmental media. Heavy metals Soil Artisanal Gold mining Health Contamination Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 1. Introduction Africa, the second largest continent is found with divers’ natural resource that include mineral, oil, arable land, natural gas, etc. Some of these natural resource are renewable (sun and wind), while some are non-renewable (coal, fossil fuel, Cu, Pb, etc) (National Geographic 2023; United Nations, 2023). African continent possess 30 percent of the world’s mineral reserves (diamond, tantalum, granite, aqua-marine, bentolite, beryl, gold); 12 percent of the world’s oil and 8 percent of the world’s natural gas reserves (Darimani et al., 2013 ; Eludoyin et al., 2017 ; United Nations, 2023). Gold, a natural mineral and potentially toxic element, found within Africa creates great economic buoyancy to any individual, organisation or country and a social change (positive and negative) to the public health (Feng et al., 2021, Seccatore et al 2014). The major importance gold possess as led many especially illiterates into illegal mining, also known as artisanal gold mining. Their lack of education most often made them ignorant of environmental protection Schonfeld 2014. The present state of overpopulation, and unemployment had led several men and women into the game of survival of the fittest most especially as artisanal miners (Eludoyin et al., 2017 ). Artisanal mining, a foremost informal form of mining in the sub-Saharan countries have over fifty million people in the business (AMDC 2023). This mining is termed ‘informal’ because it does not follow a specific format nor any rule of order to operate (AMDC 2023). This form of mining has become an endemic form of disease across many developing nations. Those found in these form of business are mostly low income earners, unlearned that do not have the way withal or lawful nor skillful form of mining; they most often sidetrack governments rule and regulation on mining for their gains (WHO, 2016). Artisanal mining has been accepted by the government due to the way it contributes towards sustainable livelihoods by aligning with the SDG and poverty reduction that comes with it across many African nations (Charles et al., 2013 ; Muller and Mutemeri, 2014; WHO, 2016). Artisanal mining therefore, serves as a major cushion to the nation’s economy, especially in provision of jobs for thousands of people by reducing insecurity to the minimal and the development of rural-urban community (Muller and Mutemeri, 2014). The wide acceptance comes from the stability in the price of solid minerals as compared with the unstable price of crude oil (Johnson et al., 2017 ); another advantage is the easy or convenient adoption of its mode of extract (United Nations, 2023). Despite the great advantages found in artisanal gold mining; the negative effects on the landscape (flora and fauna), public health and the environment at large is enormous (United Nations, 2023). It has become a major form of environmental pollution this led to the 2013 incidence of lead poisoning through artisanal mining in Zamfara, Nigeria where over nine hundred deaths of children was recorded ( Ako et al., 2014 ; Adewumi and Laniyan 2020 ; Amaku 2013 ). Artisanal gold mining can have considerable effect on biodiversity that results in reduction of nutrients in the soil; this invariably reduces or increases the concentration of metals to be accumulated by plants to an unacceptable limit that becomes unhealthy to public health (Ako et al., 2014 ). The various potentially toxic metals released while mining gets attached in the soil and becomes leached into the ground water, rivers and stream sediment; thus polluting the area with any vegetables cultivated in the area (Ako et al., 2014 ; Mamodu et al. , 2018; Laniyan and Adewumi 2019;). Several studies on artisanal gold mining had revealed high concentrations of potentially toxic metals (As, Pb, Cd, Hg) and its effect on public health and the ecosystem when it finds its way into man through ingestion, inhalation; or dermal contact (Plumlee et al ., 2013; Amaku 2013 ; Bartrem et al., 2014 ; Ngure et al., 2014; Oramah et al ., 2015; Islam et al., 2015 ; Zhou et al., 2016; Eludoyin et al., 2017 ; Laniyan and Adewumi 2019; Adewumi and Laniyan 2020 ) ). The study investigates the impact of soil pollution and land degradation of communities within artisanal gold mining of Southwestern Nigeria. 1.1 Gold mining in Nigeria and Osun State Nigeria had been found to be one of the African nations where artisanal gold mining is pronounced unlike Ghana and Burkina Faso where large scale mining thrives. Gold mining in Nigeria had yielded a lot of economic benefits to the people that operate it and this had made the business enriched and endeared with people (old and young) despite the health effect it has on environment, with evidence of lack to no enforcement of law by the government. Ilesha Osun state gold mining is one of the major mining sites found in southwestern Nigeria. It started production since early 1950s. This form of illegal mining became pronounced in the middle 1990s (Odukoya et al. , 2018) when it was observed to be highly lucrative. It is evident that artisanal gold mining in communities within Ilesha, has posed serious threat to the ecology and soil characteristics of the area, due to the rudimentary methods utilized in extracting and processing of minerals, which could in turn jeopardizes human lives and livelihoods. The proliferations of artisanal gold panning in communities within Ilesha remain unchecked and this has been linked to contamination and pollution of soil, water and sediments. Undoubtedly, the streams and rivers where these artisanal gold panning materials drain into serve the villages and towns along them, causing morbidity and mortality conditions among inhabitants (Environmental Law Institute 2014). Environmental challenge observed in the communities includes deforestation (this occurs when the land is cleared for mining and construction of channels for gold recovery; thereby degrading cash crops like cocoa, maize, plantain and cocoyam); distortion of soil moisture, adsorption of the released metal into any available media, etc. However, the documentation of the environmental and health impact of artisanal gold mining on soil and human in communities within Ilesha area is scarce. The research study will form a database to ascertain the extent of potentially toxic metal pollution caused by artisanal gold mining; discharge of mine tails across the landscape is also very common since there are no enforcement of government regulation 1.1.2 People/organization and mining methods Artisanal gold mining is done most often by the unemployed and farmers that believe their earnings are not sufficient for them (Zhou et al., 2016). The farmers abandon their farming due to high lucrativeness and ability to sideline all tiers of government. Mining methods done by most artisanal miners are arbitrary digging and panning. This is done by bouncing on a bare land suspected with high potential of gold, to dig this releases potentially toxic metals into the atmosphere; when this people does not find the metal they abandon the well and move to another spot. This type of method is done until economic amount of the metal is found. Subsequently, causing more of non-communicable diseases and invariably death of both the workers and those living around the artisanal mining site (Zhou et al., 2016). 1.1.3 Immediate impacts of the mining process The immediate impact of artisanal mining are enormous examples are land degradation which affects agricultural produce, deforestation, depletion of oxygen, emission of various toxic metals and organic compounds into the atmosphere that eventually leads to air pollution thereby causing various carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic diseases, with all forms of respiratory disease. Empty pits, holes and gullies becomes death trap to animals and children and it also enhances the release of metals into the environment. The release of mine tailings allows metals to the soil and then gets leached into the groundwater thereby becoming disease menace to the community, causing heavy metal pollution, indiscriminate vegetation removal and the destruction of farmlands sedimentation of rivers, improper handling of waste, abandonment of excavated pits, and a lack of reclamation (Affum et al., 2016 , Boadi, et al., 2016 , Bansah, et al 2016 , 2018a , b ). The raw and crude way of operation by these miners make the environment sick (Makwanya, 2018, Obed et al., 2019). 1.1.4 Geomorphological overview of the landscape of the study area Ilesha metropolis falls within the Basement complex region of Nigeria. The study area lies between latitudes 07 ◦ 26' – 07 ◦ 34'N and longitude 004 ◦ 38' – 004 ◦ 41'E (Fig. 1 ) and it is underlain by Precambrian basement complex rocks of southwestern Nigeria. The major rock types in Ilesha metropolis are mainly migmatite, granite and charnockite rocks. This rocks that are member of the Migmatite–Gneiss Complex and the Older Granite suit occupy about 45% and 55% of the total area of Ilesha metropolis respectively. Three main textural types of charnockitic rocks are distinguished in Ilesha; these are the coarse-grained variety, massive fine grained and the gneissic fine grained type. Unlike most of the older granite, the charnockitic rocks do not occur in the form of prominent topographic features such as inselberg rounded boulders but only exist in a few low hills of oval to sub-circular and elongated bodies. The charnockitic rocks appear to have three modes of occurrence in the study area, the first occurrence is within what seems to be the “core” of the granite rock (e.g. Ilesha body and few smaller bodies), the second is along the margins of granite bodies while the third category occur as small individual bodies within the country gneiss complex (Olanrewaju, 2006; Oyawoye, 1964; Rahaman and Curry, 2006). The first two occurrences are mainly shown by the coarse-grained charnockitic variety while the last occurrence is represented by discrete bodies of the gneissic-fine grained charnockitic rocks within the country gneisses. All the charnockitic rocks in the study area are dark-greenish to greenish-gray rocks with bluish quartz and greenish feldspars. Artisanal gold mining is commonly practiced in the poorest areas of a country and has been identified as means of livelihood adopted primarily in rural areas (Ncube-Phiri et al. , 2015) which is not different from what was observed in Ilesha. This informal, unorganized, unplanned and uncontrolled nature of artisanal gold mining has led to various environmental damage, social disruption and conflicts such as deforestation, air, lands, soils and water are polluted and degraded, biodiversity degradation of reduction in essential nutrients and organic matter in soil, thus, reducing biological activity and leading to decreases in productivity of the soil and the release of toxic metals that pose a major health challenge to the inhabitants and miners. Mine sites around farmlands where chemicals may accumulate in fruits and leaves of arable and cash crops, on polluted soil can cause severe heavy metal contamination of water sources and poisoning of humans and animals, if ingested, inhaled or absorbed by the skin (Ako et al., 2014 , Mamodu et al. , 2018, Plumlee et al ., 2013; Bartrem et al., 2014 ; Oramah et al ., 2015; Eludoyin et al., 2017 ). 2. Methods and materials 2.1 Study Area Ilesha the study area lies within southwestern part of the reactivated basement complex of Nigeria (Figure 1). The study area is located between latitudes 07 ◦ 26' – 07 ◦ 34'N and longitude 004 ◦ 38' – 004 ◦ 41'E, is underlain by Precambrian basement complex rocks of southwestern Nigeria. Dominant land–use is agriculture especially the cultivation of food and cash crops such as cassava, fruits, plantain, cocoa and oil palm. Most of the farmlands have been demarcated with open pits created as a result of the search for gold in the study area. Which often serve as habitats for dangerous animals especially reptiles. The climate is characterized by tropical dry and wet climate in the rainforest ecological region. Mean rainfall is about 140cm per year. Relative humidity over the area varies from 60 to 80%, while mean annual temperature varies between 26°C and 28°C (Eludoyin et al., 2017). 2.1.1 Study Design The study design is field and laboratory based. 2.1.2 Field Activities Thirty-five top soil samples (0 – 20cm) were collected around Ijana, Itagunmodi, Epe, Igbadae, Igun and Ifewara. These are Ilesha communities where artisanal gold mining is pronounced. Samples were collected under dry stable weather condition with a base map (1:50,000). The samples were loosed by a stainless steel hand trowel and randomly collected with a plastic scoop. To avoid contamination, soil samples were sieved directly on the field using plastic sieve to remove stones, dirt and organic debris. Then stored in a polythene bag and appropriately labeled on the field to avoid confusion. Soil samples were air dried on clean polythene nylons for two weeks in room temperature and subsequently disaggregated before preparation. 2.1.2 Sample Preparation 2.1.2.1 Grain size analysis Two different mesh sizes 600 micron and 75 micron were selected for the analysis. Six hundred (600) mic sieves serves as the boundary between sand and silt while the 75 mic serves as a boundary between silt and clay fractions. Grain size analysis was carried out in Sedimentology Laboratory, Department of Geology, University of Ibadan. 2.1.2.2 Grain Size Analysis Procedure Both sieves were cleaned with brush, weighed on sensitive balance and recorded. Then sieves were arranged in descending order with the pan at the bottom. 100g of each sample were weighed on an electronic sensitive balance and transferred into the stacked sieves and the stack was covered tightly and placed on a sieve shaker for 15 minutes. The retained portion in each sieve was weighed and recorded. A portion of the fine fraction collected at base of the sieves were weighed, recorded, labeled and stored for further analysis. The procedure was repeatedly done for all the samples. The finest fractions of each sample were used for further chemical analyses. 2.2 Sample digestion and Analysis 0.5g of the sample was digested with aqua regia for 2 hours at 95°C. The samples were cooled and then diluted with deionized water. Samples were analyzed using an Agilent 700 series Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) for the 35 element suite. Quality control for the digestion is 15% for each batch, 2 method reagent blanks, 6 in-house controls, 8 sample duplicates and 5 certified reference materials. An additional 20% QC is performed as part of the instrumental analysis to ensure quality in the areas of instrumental drift. Samples were then analysed with ICP-OES at Activation Laboratory, Canada. 2.3 Contamination Assessment Contamination assessment of the samples was done using Geo–accumulation Index (Igeo), Enrichment Factor (EF), Contamination Factor (CF), Contamination Degree (CD), Pollution Load Index (PLI) (Table 1a & 1b) were carried out. 2.3.1 Health Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in Soils Average Daily Intake (ADI) (mg/kg–day; USEPA, 1989) for ingestion, inhalation and dermal contact was estimated (Table 2a) to access the effect of pollutant on both adult and children and to know the exposure pathway. The carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic exposure risks (USEPA, 1989) (Table 2a) were also evaluated in the research study. Full lifetime cancer risk for any individual can be calculated from the mean contributions of the individual heavy metals for all the pathways (Table 2a). Exposure parameters used for health risk assessment through different exposure pathways was defined in Table 2b. 3. Results 3.1 Concentration of Heavy Metals in Soils Mean concentration of metals in soils of the area (Table 3a), when compared with crustal average revealed all metals to be within the average except Ag: 0.20 ppm; Cd: 0.50 ppm; As: 2.96 ppm; Cr: 108.17 ppm. ρ–value for all the metals when less than 0.01 showed the significance of the metals. Mean Geo–accumulation index (Igeo), enrichment factor (EF) and contamination factor (CF) for metals in soils of the area (Table 3b) revealed the rate of pollution of As, Cd and Cr in the study area. This was confirmed by the pollution load index (PLI) and contamination degree (CD) Figure 2 3.2 Bivariate Correlation Strong and positive correlation Table 4 (As - Ba (r-0.68); Cr – As (r- 0.98); Cr – Mn (r -0.84)) was observed amongst metals; which was pronounced with Cr. This revealed the release of toxic metals depicting similar anthropogenic source within the metals. This was also confirmed by the Hierarchical cluster (Figure 3) that revealed almost all the metals are from the same anthropogenic source. 3.3 Ecological Risk Assessment The mean ecological risk assessment (ERI) of heavy metals in soils of the area (Table 5b) were pronounced in all the metals with the exception of Zn; and potential ecological risk assessment (PERI) revealed the influence of human activities on the metals of the study area. 3.4 Health Risk Assessment The reference dose, cancer slope factor and average daily intake (ADI) of heavy metals through oral ingestion, dermal contact and inhalation for both carcinogenic and non–carcinogenic health hazards in children and adult (Table 6a,b,c) revealed both children and adult are prone to carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic disease. This was also confirmed by hazard quotient (HQ) and health index (HI) within the study area (Table 6c). 4. Discussion 4.1 Concentration and contamination of soils by metals Concentration of metals in soil of the study area (Table 6 ) revealed some of the metals to be above the average crustal value. High concentrations of these metals may be due to persistent artisanal mining of gold that could pose great danger to the environment and health of the community, this was confirmed by the work done by other researcher (Laniyan and Adewumi, 2019; Adewunmi and Laniyan, 2020). Contamination assessment Table 3 a; Fig. 4 revealed the metals to pose considerable to high degree of contamination in the study. The result was confirmed by a similar work done by Segzin et al. 2003 and Duzgoras–Aydin et al. 2007. 4.2 Potential Sources of Metals in Soil Sediments Metals are known to come from both natural and anthropogenic sources, natural occurrence of metals and geographic mineralogical variation often hamper the accurate assessment of anthropogenic input of metals. The type of mining operation determines the level of metal contamination in soil, with waste release also affecting the form and degree of contamination (Laniyan and Adewumi, 2019). To unravel the potential sources of heavy metals in the soils, bivariate correlation, and hierarchical cluster analysis were employed. Bivariate correlation Table 4 revealed that there is a positive and strong relationship among metals. This indicated that metals in soils of the area might have been released by geogenic and anthropogenic activities especially mining and mineral processing that occurs in the area. Hierarchical cluster analysis further revealed that all the metals are basically from anthropogenic activities with the exception of V and Mn that are from geogenic environment. 4.3 Risk of Metals in Soil Sediments The mean value of ERI and PERI (Table 5 ) revealed risk of contaminated soil to the ecological environment, because it affects the local vegetables and microorganisms that helps in a healthy environment. This consequently affects the food chain (Jingzhao et al., 2021). Health risk assessment revealed dermal contact with contaminated sediments pose non–carcinogenic health risk in both adults and children (Table 6 b). According to the USEPA (1989) people are at risk of non–carcinogenic health risk if HI is greater than 1 through different pathways. However, it was revealed that children are more prone to non–carcinogenic diseases than adults in the area which may be linked to their undeveloped immune systems according to WHO (2011) and could also be as a result of the increased participation of children in mineral processing of artisanal gold mining (Adewumi et al. , 2019; Adewumi and Laniyan, 2020 ). Igwe, 2010 revealed that 60% of illegal miners are women and children, as it was revealed by that According to USEPA (1989) people are at a risk of carcinogenic health risk if HI is between 10 –4 and 10 –8 through different pathways. Carcinogenic health risk showed that adults are prone to this type of health risk through oral ingestion of Cr which has value greater than 10 –4 (Table 6 b). Children in this area are not exposed to carcinogenic health hazards in the mining area. 4.4 Environmental Protection versus Poverty Artisanal mining a major source of income for increasing the wealth of rural populations and an important source of alternative means of livelihood, is about the oldest form of mining that exist in both developed and developing countries (Ghanaian Times 2003; UNDP Sustainable Livelihoods Unit (1999). 6.2 million people worldwide are employed in artisanal mining. One million are employed in Africa, 4.2 million in Asia, Latin America; 30,000 in Ghana and over 500,ooo in Nigeria (Ghanaian Times 2003; UNDP Sustainable Livelihoods Unit (1999). Artisanal miners use rudimentary techniques for mineral extraction and often operate under hazardous, labor-intensive and highly disorganized conditions since most of them get into the business due to poverty and without any basic knowledge (Ghanaian Times 2003). An income that comes through artisanal mining opens doors for other sectors that helps to support the growth of most rural communities especially in developing communities; such sectors include agricultural and non- agricultural sectors. Despite this the negative impact of the mining is enormous in terms of health, access to potable drinking water, and environmental degradation. This is due to the use of primitive and low cost technologies by the miners. In their attempt to maximize incomes, they expose both themselves and others to large proportion of neurotoxins. Toxins bioaccumulate in the air and soil, gets leached in the ground water thereby polluting the entire environment by creating a major hazard to both adults and children within the community. It has been deducted by researchers that for every gram of gold produced, 2–5 grams of mercury and about 3 gram of lead are released into the environment. Such was the 2013 occurrence of lead poisoning that killed over nine hundred children in Zamfara state Nigeria (Makwanya, 2018).Artisanal mining has become an environmental time bomb set to explode at the climax of period due to the impact of the form of mining on the environment and even the ecosystem at large (Makwanya, 2018). The challenge is observed from air pollution through carbon emissions that occurs through the unlocking of carbon stocks done by destroying forests and landscapes, without land-filling or forest regeneration; emission of mercury, lead, and other forms of toxic metals that comes via rock blasting and unconcerned soil roughing by the raw miners which has inevitably led to an environmental eye-sore that can be termed ‘cancer of the environment’, other major impact caused by this type of mining is the way holes, gullies and pits are abandoned after excavation which lead to emission ot metals into the atmosphere, trap for both animal and man and even accumulation of metals by plants that rtive to grow in such community. (Makwanya, 2018, Obed et al., 2019) Many nations such as Ghana, Zimbabwe had tried to ban ASM because of her destructive ability but they later lift the ban when they realize it contributes to at least 30% of the nation’s gross income (Hilson 2017 ) while means of recycling most of the products emits into the environment is being sourced both by governmental and non-governmental bodies to allay the challenges faced by ASM. Significant pressure is placed on miners now in countries like USA, Canada, Ghana to be more environmentally and socially responsible. Therefore most of the rock waste and mine tailings left to degrade the environment is gradually been turned to a major source of income for the nation. A technological process known as bioleaching is being adopted by some countries. The process uses natural occurring bacterial harmless to both human and the environment to oxidise the sulphide materials left in the tailing and thus stabilizes toxic arsenic emitted into the environment, captures the heavy metals and eliminate the acid mine drainage that could have been created by the mining. Some had even adopted means of turning tha mine tails into concrete, sand and gravel aggregate, ballast of railway, part of raw materials of cement, raw materials to produce all kinds of bricks and tiles etc (Jordan, 2015 , Paivo et al., 2018, Junior miners, 2019 , Leonida, 2019) 5. Conclusions The results of this study on the environmental and health effect of heavy metals distribution from artisanal gold mining on soil and human in selected communities in Ilesa, Osun state revealed that the observed heavy metals in soil samples have their concentrations greater than their respective background values in the parent materials according to the following sequence; Cr > Bi > Sb > Sn > W > As > Mo > Ag > Cd. The soils at the artisanal gold mining sites of the selected areas were clearly affected and extremely polluted by W, Bi and Sb. The results of the contamination indices carried out showed that Bi, Sc and V contributed greatly to very high contamination of the soils. This may be due to the persistent artisanal mining of gold which is continuously increasing, with influx of people from different region to mine. This leads to deplorable hygienic conditions and lack of clean and safe drinking water which may adequately cause outbreaks of waterborne diseases and these may pose enormous threat to the environment and health of the inhabitants of the communities. The observed environmental impacts as a result of artisanal gold mining include open pits, land degradation, pollution of the river courses, reduction of soil quality and deforestation as miners fell trees on land probably fertile for agriculture in order to mine. destruction of forest ecosystems which enables availability of food and better protection provided by tall trees for plants, man and animals. Anthropogenic activities from artisanal gold mining would probably affect man as the soil quality which could aid agriculture would have been reduced and probably destroyed, thereby causing an imbalance in beneficial macro– and microorganisms while the plant and animal population in the forest ecosystem which plays a significant role in ecosystem structuring and functioning would have been affected due to forest fragmentation as a result of artisanal gold mining. The persistent increase of artisanal gold mining activities if not controlled and mitigated will impose an adverse environmental and health effect on soils and the inhabitants of the selected communities. A means of remediation most be created by both governmental and non-governmental body to reduce if to clear the impact of ASM on the environment A way of recycling some of the media produced during extraction should be done to yield more income to the nation and community the metals Declarations Author Contribution T.A and T.O wrote the main manuscript and S.S prepared the figures and tables. All authours reviwed the manuscript Conflicting Interest The authors have no conflicting Interest References Adewumi, A.J. and Laniyan, T.A. (2020). Contamination, sources and risk assessments of metals in media from Anka artisanal gold mining area, Northwest Nigeria. Science of the Total Environment . Accessed August 10, 2020, from https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.scitotenv.2020.137235. Affum, A. O., Dede, S. O., Nyarko, B. J. B., Acquaah, S. O., Kwaansa-Ansah, E. E., Darko, G., ... Fianko, J. R. (2016). 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Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. Jordan (2015). 13 Applications of Tailings and Waste Rocks. https://www.ftmmachinery.com/blog/13-applications-of-tailings-and-waste-rocks.html Last Updated : Mar 27, 2021 Junior Miners, (2019). Recycling the world's mine tailings. https://juniorminers.com/news/recycling-mining-tailings.html , Valid from 5/6/2021 to 5/ 6/ 2022 Laniyan, T. A. and Adewumi, A. (2019). Health risk assessment of heavy metal pollution in groundwater around an exposed dumpsite in southwestern Nigeria. Journal of Health and Pollution, 9(24): 191–210. Leonida, C, (2019). The intelligent miner; Mine tailings: reprocess, recover & recycle: Why we'll be hearing an awful lot more about the reprocessing of tailings from mining over the coming years. https://theintelligentminer.com/2019/09/13/mine-tailings-reprocess-recover-recycle; 13 th September 2019 Mamodu, A., Ojonimi, I. T., Apollos, S. S., Jacinta, O. N., Salome, W. H. and Enesi, A. A. (2018). Analyzing the environmental impacts and potential health challenges resulting from artisanal gold mining in Shango area of Minna, North–Central, Nigeria. Journal of Degraded Mining Lands Management , 5(2): 1055–106. Makwanya , ( 2018) . Artisanal mining activities: An environmental time-bomb. In NewsDay Zimbabwe https://www.zimbabwesituation.com/news/artisanal-mining-activities-an-environmental-time-bomb/2/6/2021 to 2/11/2022 ; December 17, 2018 8:56 AMMuller, G. (1969). Index of Geoaccumulation in Sediments of the Rhine River. GeoJournal, 2: 108–118. Muller, M. H. and Mutemeri, N. (2014). GIS–based monitoring of artisanal and small–scale mining around large–scale gold mines in Sub–Saharan Africa, In Addressing Environmental and health impacts of active and abandoned mines in Sub–Saharan Africa. Proceedings of the Closing Workshop of the IGCP/SIDA Projects 594 and 606, Prague, Czech Republic , pp. 105–108. National Geographic (2023). Africa: Resources. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/africa-resources/(Validity: February 27 2023 to November 23 2023) Ncube-Phiri S, Ncube A, Mucherera L, Ncube K (2015). Artisanal small-scale mining: Potential ecological disaster in Mzingwane District, Zimbabwe. Jamba. 2015 May 28;7(1):158. doi: 10.4102/jamba.v7i1.158. PMID: 29955279; PMCID: PMC6014108. Obed Owusu, Kenneth Joseph Bansah, Albert Kobina Mensah (2019). “Small in size, but big in impact”: Socio-environmental reforms for sustainable artisanal and small-scale mining, Journal of Sustainable Mining, Volume 18, Issue 1, 2019, Pages 38-44, ISSN 2300-3960, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsm.2019.02.001. Odukoya, A. M., Olobaniyi, S. B. and Oluseyi, T. O. (2018). Assessment of potentially toxic elements pollution and human health risk in soil of Ilesha gold mining site, southwest Nigeria, Journal Geological Society of India, 91: (743–748). Oramah, I. T., Richards, J. P., Summers, R., Garvin, T. and McGee, T. (2015). Artisanal and small–scale mining in Nigeria: Experiences from Niger, Nasarawa and Plateau states. The Extractive Industries and Society, 2 : 694–703. Oyawoye M. O. (1964), “The contact relationship of charnockite and biotite gneiss at Bauchi, Northern Nigeria”. Geol. Mag. 10, No. 2, pp 138-144. . Paivo Kinnunen, Arnold Ismailov, Soili Solismaa, Harisankar Sreenivasan, Marja-Liisa Räisänen, Erkki Levänen, Mirja Illikainen (2018). Recycling mine tailings in chemically bonded ceramics – A review, Journal of Cleaner Production, Volume 174, 2018, Pages 634-649, ISSN 0959-6526, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.10.280. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652617325854). Plumlee, G. S., Durant, J. T., Morman, S. A., Neri, A., Wolf, R. E., Dooyema, C. A. and Hageman, P. L. (2013). Linking geological and health sciences to assess childhood lead poisoning from artisanal gold mining in Nigeria. Environmental Health Perspectives, 121: 744. Rahaman M.A AND MC Curry (2006): Petrology of Nigeria Rocks, University Press, Ibadan, 4th Edition, Pg 122. Seccatore Jacopo, Veiga Marcello, Origliasso Chiara, Marin Tatiane, De Tomi Giorgio (2014). An estimation of the artisanal small-scale production of gold in the world, Science of The Total Environment, Volume 496, 2014, Pages 662-667, ISSN 0048-9697, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.05.003. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969714006603) Schonfeld S.J., Winde F., Albrecht C., Kielkowski D., Liefferink M., Patel M., Sewram V., Stoch L., Whitaker C., Schüz J., (2014). Health effects in populations living around the uraniferous gold mine tailings in South Africa: Gaps and opportunities for research, Cancer Epidemiology, Volume 38, Issue 5, 2014, Pages 628-632, ISSN 1877-7821, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canep.2014.06.003. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877782114001064) Stockbrokers CSL (2023). Gold Mining: a huge untapped oppourtunity. https://nairametrics.com/2022/04/01/gold-mining-a-huge-untapped-opportunity/. Validity May 23 2023 to May 23 2024 Tomilson, D. L., Wilson, J. G., Harris, C. R. and Jeffney, D. W. (1980). Problems in the assessment of heavy metal levels in estuaries and the formation of a pollution index. Helgolander Wissenschaftliche Meeresuntersuchungen, 33: 566–572. United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) (1989).office of Water Regulations and Standard: Guidance manual for assessing human health risks from chemically contaminated, fish and shellfish U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC; EPA–503/8–89–002. United Nations, (2023): Our work in Africa. https://www.unep.org/regions/africa/our-work-africa (Validity Date: May 12 2023 to May 12 2024) Wang, R., Sun, B. and Yang, Y. (2015). Discriminative host sanction together with relatedness promote the cooperation in fig/fig wasp mutualism. Journal of Animal Ecology , 84: 1133–1139. World health Organization (WHO) (2016). Artisanal and small–scale gold mining and health: Environmental and occupational health hazards associated with artisanal and small–scale gold mining. Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health (PHE), Geneva: World Health Organization, pp. 1–26. Zhou, T., Li, Z., Zhang, F., Jiang, X., Shi, W., Wu, L., Christie, P., 2016. Concentrations of arsenic, cadmium and lead in human hair and typical foods in eleven Chinese cities. Environ. Toxicol. Pharmacol. 48, 150–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. etap.2016.10.010. Tables Table 1 to 6 are available in the Supplementary Files section. Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-3875505","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":268793352,"identity":"e496615f-6319-48d2-ae7b-9b111bac51d4","order_by":0,"name":"T. A. Laniyan","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA1UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFAC5gYGBgMgzQ6kGQwsCGvgYWOEauE5ANIiQawWEJBIAJOEtdjLNzZ+Lig4LG8u+fzqhh8FEgz87d0JhGxplp5hcNhw5+ycsps9QIdJnDm7gaDDpHkMDjNuuJ2TdoMHqMVAIpeglubfQC32G26eSbv5h0gtbSBbEjfcYD92mzhbjiW2WfMYpCdvOJPDdlvGQIKHoF/Ymw8fvs3zx9p2w/Hjz26++WMjx9/ei18LFDSDLDQAW0uMchCoA1n4gFjVo2AUjIJRMMIAAPWnRQY78BFcAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"University of Ibadan","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"T.","middleName":"A.","lastName":"Laniyan","suffix":""},{"id":268793353,"identity":"6cf6a87e-0590-41ee-95b9-5e7d92d08e74","order_by":1,"name":"T. O. Kolawole","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Osun State University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"T.","middleName":"O.","lastName":"Kolawole","suffix":""},{"id":268793354,"identity":"dd5dccbb-ca90-411b-8391-1458145bdeb9","order_by":2,"name":"S. S. Kenjinu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Olabisi Onabanjo University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"S.","middleName":"S.","lastName":"Kenjinu","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-01-18 10:32:45","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3875505/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3875505/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":50175913,"identity":"2aadfaa1-2656-43a6-bc07-1c41ecd308cd","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-01-25 16:28:33","extension":"jpeg","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":656338,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eLocation map of the study area\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage1.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-3875505/v1/8828f0c560fa2153812f9d24.jpeg"},{"id":50175153,"identity":"0ea27eee-da63-43da-b1f7-c5c6df400fd8","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-01-25 16:20:33","extension":"jpeg","order_by":2,"title":"Figure 2","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":294559,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eAverage Contamination Degree (CD) and Pollution Load Index (PLI) of metals in soils of the area.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage2.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-3875505/v1/973e267c375a699f0b28a18f.jpeg"},{"id":50175155,"identity":"f90ce417-5ee4-4644-844d-b5b74a96378f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-01-25 16:20:33","extension":"jpeg","order_by":3,"title":"Figure 3","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":348578,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eHierarchical Cluster of Metals in Soils of the Area\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"floatimage3.jpeg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-3875505/v1/299f7d385fffafef2cea0361.jpeg"},{"id":50211857,"identity":"5b995ae3-d62a-4dac-a8eb-e60aeb94722b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-01-26 11:52:50","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":680941,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-3875505/v1/435623fd-d444-47b6-9eb3-9cbbace99972.pdf"},{"id":50175152,"identity":"a6405d53-42d3-4b0f-8f86-d69f26d203d4","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-01-25 16:20:33","extension":"docx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":48019,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"TableLaniyannewJEES.docx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-3875505/v1/ee517ad7c04eaf3d57c59a2b.docx"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Environmental Assessment of Artisanal Gold Mining on Soils of a Community within Southwestern, Nigeria","fulltext":[{"header":"1. Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eAfrica, the second largest continent is found with divers\u0026rsquo; natural resource that include mineral, oil, arable land, natural gas, etc. Some of these natural resource are renewable (sun and wind), while some are non-renewable (coal, fossil fuel, Cu, Pb, etc) (National Geographic 2023; United Nations, 2023). African continent possess 30 percent of the world\u0026rsquo;s mineral reserves (diamond, tantalum, granite, aqua-marine, bentolite, beryl, gold); 12 percent of the world\u0026rsquo;s oil and 8 percent of the world\u0026rsquo;s natural gas reserves (Darimani et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR12\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e; Eludoyin et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e; United Nations, 2023).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eGold, a natural mineral and potentially toxic element, found within Africa creates great economic buoyancy to any individual, organisation or country and a social change (positive and negative) to the public health (Feng et al., 2021, Seccatore et al 2014).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe major importance gold possess as led many especially illiterates into illegal mining, also known as artisanal gold mining. Their lack of education most often made them ignorant of environmental protection Schonfeld 2014. The present state of overpopulation, and unemployment had led several men and women into the game of survival of the fittest most especially as artisanal miners (Eludoyin et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eArtisanal mining, a foremost informal form of mining in the sub-Saharan countries have over fifty million people in the business (AMDC 2023). This mining is termed \u0026lsquo;informal\u0026rsquo; because it does not follow a specific format nor any rule of order to operate (AMDC 2023). This form of mining has become an endemic form of disease across many developing nations. Those found in these form of business are mostly low income earners, unlearned that do not have the way withal or lawful nor skillful form of mining; they most often sidetrack governments rule and regulation on mining for their gains (WHO, 2016).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eArtisanal mining has been accepted by the government due to the way it contributes towards sustainable livelihoods by aligning with the SDG and poverty reduction that comes with it across many African nations (Charles et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR11\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e; Muller and Mutemeri, 2014; WHO, 2016). Artisanal mining therefore, serves as a major cushion to the nation\u0026rsquo;s economy, especially in provision of jobs for thousands of people by reducing insecurity to the minimal and the development of rural-urban community (Muller and Mutemeri, 2014). The wide acceptance comes from the stability in the price of solid minerals as compared with the unstable price of crude oil (Johnson et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e); another advantage is the easy or convenient adoption of its mode of extract (United Nations, 2023).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDespite the great advantages found in artisanal gold mining; the negative effects on the landscape (flora and fauna), public health and the environment at large is enormous (United Nations, 2023). It has become a major form of environmental pollution this led to the 2013 incidence of lead poisoning through artisanal mining in Zamfara, Nigeria where over nine hundred deaths of children was recorded ( Ako et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR4\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e; Adewumi and Laniyan \u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e; Amaku \u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e). Artisanal gold mining can have considerable effect on biodiversity that results in reduction of nutrients in the soil; this invariably reduces or increases the concentration of metals to be accumulated by plants to an unacceptable limit that becomes unhealthy to public health (Ako et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR4\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e). The various potentially toxic metals released while mining gets attached in the soil and becomes leached into the ground water, rivers and stream sediment; thus polluting the area with any vegetables cultivated in the area (Ako et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR4\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e; Mamodu \u003cem\u003eet al.\u003c/em\u003e, 2018; Laniyan and Adewumi 2019;).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSeveral studies on artisanal gold mining had revealed high concentrations of potentially toxic metals (As, Pb, Cd, Hg) and its effect on public health and the ecosystem when it finds its way into man through ingestion, inhalation; or dermal contact (Plumlee \u003cem\u003eet al\u003c/em\u003e., 2013; Amaku \u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e; Bartrem et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e; Ngure et al., 2014; Oramah \u003cem\u003eet al\u003c/em\u003e., 2015; Islam et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR19\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e; Zhou et al., 2016; Eludoyin et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e; Laniyan and Adewumi 2019; Adewumi and Laniyan \u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e) ). The study investigates the impact of soil pollution and land degradation of communities within artisanal gold mining of Southwestern Nigeria.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec2\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e1.1 Gold mining in Nigeria and Osun State\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eNigeria had been found to be one of the African nations where artisanal gold mining is pronounced unlike Ghana and Burkina Faso where large scale mining thrives. Gold mining in Nigeria had yielded a lot of economic benefits to the people that operate it and this had made the business enriched and endeared with people (old and young) despite the health effect it has on environment, with evidence of lack to no enforcement of law by the government.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIlesha Osun state gold mining is one of the major mining sites found in southwestern Nigeria. It started production since early 1950s. This form of illegal mining became pronounced in the middle 1990s (Odukoya \u003cem\u003eet al.\u003c/em\u003e, 2018) when it was observed to be highly lucrative. It is evident that artisanal gold mining in communities within Ilesha, has posed serious threat to the ecology and soil characteristics of the area, due to the rudimentary methods utilized in extracting and processing of minerals, which could in turn jeopardizes human lives and livelihoods. The proliferations of artisanal gold panning in communities within Ilesha remain unchecked and this has been linked to contamination and pollution of soil, water and sediments. Undoubtedly, the streams and rivers where these artisanal gold panning materials drain into serve the villages and towns along them, causing morbidity and mortality conditions among inhabitants (Environmental Law Institute 2014).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEnvironmental challenge observed in the communities includes deforestation (this occurs when the land is cleared for mining and construction of channels for gold recovery; thereby degrading cash crops like cocoa, maize, plantain and cocoyam); distortion of soil moisture, adsorption of the released metal into any available media, etc.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHowever, the documentation of the environmental and health impact of artisanal gold mining on soil and human in communities within Ilesha area is scarce. The research study will form a database to ascertain the extent of potentially toxic metal pollution caused by artisanal gold mining; discharge of mine tails across the landscape is also very common since there are no enforcement of government regulation\u003c/p\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec3\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e1.1.2 People/organization and mining methods\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eArtisanal gold mining is done most often by the unemployed and farmers that believe their earnings are not sufficient for them (Zhou et al., 2016). The farmers abandon their farming due to high lucrativeness and ability to sideline all tiers of government. Mining methods done by most artisanal miners are arbitrary digging and panning. This is done by bouncing on a bare land suspected with high potential of gold, to dig this releases potentially toxic metals into the atmosphere; when this people does not find the metal they abandon the well and move to another spot. This type of method is done until economic amount of the metal is found. Subsequently, causing more of non-communicable diseases and invariably death of both the workers and those living around the artisanal mining site (Zhou et al., 2016).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec4\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e1.1.3 Immediate impacts of the mining process\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe immediate impact of artisanal mining are enormous examples are land degradation which affects agricultural produce, deforestation, depletion of oxygen, emission of various toxic metals and organic compounds into the atmosphere that eventually leads to air pollution thereby causing various carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic diseases, with all forms of respiratory disease. Empty pits, holes and gullies becomes death trap to animals and children and it also enhances the release of metals into the environment.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe release of mine tailings allows metals to the soil and then gets leached into the groundwater thereby becoming disease menace to the community, causing heavy metal pollution, indiscriminate vegetation removal and the destruction of farmlands sedimentation of rivers, improper handling of waste, abandonment of excavated pits, and a lack of reclamation (Affum et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e, Boadi, et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR10\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e, Bansah, et al \u003cspan citationid=\"CR7\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018a\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003eb\u003c/span\u003e). The raw and crude way of operation by these miners make the environment sick (Makwanya, 2018, Obed et al., 2019).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec5\" class=\"Section3\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e1.1.4 Geomorphological overview of the landscape of the study area\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eIlesha metropolis falls within the Basement complex region of Nigeria. The study area lies between latitudes 07\u003csup\u003e◦\u003c/sup\u003e 26' \u0026ndash; 07\u003csup\u003e◦\u003c/sup\u003e 34'N and longitude 004\u003csup\u003e◦\u003c/sup\u003e 38' \u0026ndash; 004\u003csup\u003e◦\u003c/sup\u003e 41'E (Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e) and it is underlain by Precambrian basement complex rocks of southwestern Nigeria. The major rock types in Ilesha metropolis are mainly migmatite, granite and charnockite rocks. This rocks that are member of the Migmatite\u0026ndash;Gneiss Complex and the Older Granite suit occupy about 45% and 55% of the total area of Ilesha metropolis respectively. Three main textural types of charnockitic rocks are distinguished in Ilesha; these are the coarse-grained variety, massive fine grained and the gneissic fine grained type. Unlike most of the older granite, the charnockitic rocks do not occur in the form of prominent topographic features such as inselberg rounded boulders but only exist in a few low hills of oval to sub-circular and elongated bodies.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe charnockitic rocks appear to have three modes of occurrence in the study area, the first occurrence is within what seems to be the \u0026ldquo;core\u0026rdquo; of the granite rock (e.g. Ilesha body and few smaller bodies), the second is along the margins of granite bodies while the third category occur as small individual bodies within the country gneiss complex (Olanrewaju, 2006; Oyawoye, 1964; Rahaman and Curry, 2006). The first two occurrences are mainly shown by the coarse-grained charnockitic variety while the last occurrence is represented by discrete bodies of the gneissic-fine grained charnockitic rocks within the country gneisses. All the charnockitic rocks in the study area are dark-greenish to greenish-gray rocks with bluish quartz and greenish feldspars.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eArtisanal gold mining is commonly practiced in the poorest areas of a country and has been identified as means of livelihood adopted primarily in rural areas (Ncube-Phiri \u003cem\u003eet al.\u003c/em\u003e, 2015) which is not different from what was observed in Ilesha. This informal, unorganized, unplanned and uncontrolled nature of artisanal gold mining has led to various environmental damage, social disruption and conflicts such as deforestation, air, lands, soils and water are polluted and degraded, biodiversity degradation of reduction in essential nutrients and organic matter in soil, thus, reducing biological activity and leading to decreases in productivity of the soil and the release of toxic metals that pose a major health challenge to the inhabitants and miners. Mine sites around farmlands where chemicals may accumulate in fruits and leaves of arable and cash crops, on polluted soil can cause severe heavy metal contamination of water sources and poisoning of humans and animals, if ingested, inhaled or absorbed by the skin (Ako et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR4\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e, Mamodu \u003cem\u003eet al.\u003c/em\u003e, 2018, Plumlee \u003cem\u003eet al\u003c/em\u003e., 2013; Bartrem et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e; Oramah \u003cem\u003eet al\u003c/em\u003e., 2015; Eludoyin et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"2. Methods and materials","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e2.1 Study Area\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIlesha the study area lies within southwestern part of the reactivated basement complex of Nigeria (Figure 1). The study area is located between latitudes 07\u003csup\u003e◦\u003c/sup\u003e 26\u0026apos; \u0026ndash; 07\u003csup\u003e◦\u003c/sup\u003e 34\u0026apos;N and longitude 004\u003csup\u003e◦\u003c/sup\u003e 38\u0026apos; \u0026ndash; 004\u003csup\u003e◦\u003c/sup\u003e 41\u0026apos;E, is underlain by Precambrian basement complex rocks of southwestern Nigeria. Dominant land\u0026ndash;use is agriculture especially the cultivation of food and cash crops such as cassava, fruits, plantain, cocoa and oil palm. Most of the farmlands have been demarcated with open pits created as a result of the search for gold in the study area. Which often serve as habitats for dangerous animals especially reptiles. The climate is characterized by tropical dry and wet climate in the rainforest ecological region. \u0026nbsp;Mean rainfall is about 140cm per year. Relative humidity over the area varies from 60 to 80%, while mean annual temperature varies between 26\u0026deg;C and 28\u0026deg;C (Eludoyin \u003cem\u003eet al.,\u003c/em\u003e 2017).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e2.1.1 Study Design\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe study design is field and laboratory based.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e2.1.2 Field Activities\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThirty-five top soil samples (0 \u0026ndash; 20cm) were collected around Ijana, Itagunmodi, Epe, Igbadae, Igun and Ifewara. These are Ilesha communities where artisanal gold mining is pronounced. Samples were collected under dry stable weather condition with a base map (1:50,000). \u0026nbsp;The samples were loosed by a stainless steel hand trowel and randomly collected with a plastic scoop. To avoid contamination, soil samples were sieved directly on the field using plastic sieve to remove stones, dirt and organic debris. Then stored in a polythene bag and appropriately labeled on the field to avoid confusion. Soil samples were air dried on clean polythene nylons for two weeks in room temperature and subsequently disaggregated before preparation.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e2.1.2 \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; Sample Preparation\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e2.1.2.1 Grain size analysis\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo different mesh sizes 600 micron and 75 micron were selected for the analysis. Six hundred (600) mic sieves serves as the boundary between sand and silt while the 75 mic serves as a boundary between silt and clay fractions. Grain size analysis was carried out in Sedimentology Laboratory, Department of Geology, University of Ibadan.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e2.1.2.2 Grain Size Analysis Procedure\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBoth sieves were cleaned with brush, weighed on sensitive balance and recorded. Then sieves were arranged in descending order with the pan at the bottom. 100g of each sample were weighed on an electronic sensitive balance and transferred into the stacked sieves and the stack was covered tightly and placed on a sieve shaker for 15 minutes. The retained portion in each sieve was weighed and recorded. A portion of the fine fraction collected at base of the sieves were weighed, recorded, labeled and stored for further analysis. The procedure was repeatedly done for all the samples. The finest fractions of each sample were used for further chemical analyses.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e2.2 Sample digestion and Analysis\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;0.5g of the sample was digested with aqua regia for 2 hours at 95\u0026deg;C. The samples were cooled and then diluted with deionized water. Samples were analyzed using an Agilent 700 series Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) for the 35 element suite. Quality control for the digestion is 15% for each batch, 2 method reagent blanks, 6 in-house controls, 8 sample duplicates and 5 certified reference materials. An additional 20% QC is performed as part of the instrumental analysis to ensure quality in the areas of instrumental drift. Samples were then analysed with ICP-OES at Activation Laboratory, Canada.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e2.3 \u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eContamination Assessment\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eContamination assessment of the samples was done using Geo\u0026ndash;accumulation Index (Igeo), Enrichment Factor (EF), Contamination Factor (CF), Contamination Degree (CD), Pollution Load Index (PLI) (Table 1a \u0026amp; 1b) were carried out.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e2.3.1 \u0026nbsp;\u003c/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHealth Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in Soils\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAverage Daily Intake (ADI) (mg/kg\u0026ndash;day; USEPA, 1989) for ingestion, inhalation and dermal contact was estimated (Table 2a) to access the effect of pollutant on both adult and children and to know the exposure pathway. The carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic exposure risks (USEPA, 1989) (Table 2a) were also evaluated in the research study. Full lifetime cancer risk for any individual can be calculated from the mean contributions of the individual heavy metals for all the pathways (Table 2a). Exposure parameters used for health risk assessment through different exposure pathways was defined in Table 2b.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"3. Results","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e3.1 Concentration of Heavy Metals in Soils\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMean concentration of metals in soils of the area (Table 3a), when compared with crustal average revealed all metals to be within the average except Ag: 0.20 ppm; Cd: 0.50 ppm; As: 2.96 ppm; Cr: 108.17 ppm. \u0026rho;\u0026ndash;value for all the metals when less than 0.01 showed the significance of the metals.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMean Geo\u0026ndash;accumulation index (Igeo), enrichment factor (EF) and contamination factor (CF) for metals in soils of the area (Table 3b) revealed the rate of pollution of As, Cd and Cr in the study area. This was confirmed by the pollution load index (PLI) and contamination degree (CD) Figure 2\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e3.2 Bivariate Correlation\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStrong and positive correlation Table 4 (As - Ba (r-0.68); Cr \u0026ndash; As (r- 0.98); Cr \u0026ndash; Mn (r -0.84)) was observed amongst metals; which was pronounced with Cr. This revealed the release of toxic metals depicting similar anthropogenic source within the metals.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis was also confirmed by the Hierarchical cluster (Figure 3) that revealed almost all the metals are from the same anthropogenic source.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e3.3 Ecological Risk Assessment\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mean ecological risk assessment (ERI) of heavy metals in soils of the area (Table 5b) were pronounced in all the metals with the exception of Zn; and potential ecological risk assessment (PERI) revealed the influence of human activities on the metals of the study area.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e3.4 Health Risk Assessment\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe reference dose, cancer slope factor and average daily intake (ADI) of heavy metals through oral ingestion, dermal contact and inhalation for both carcinogenic and non\u0026ndash;carcinogenic health hazards in children and adult (Table 6a,b,c) revealed both children and adult are prone to carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic disease. This was also confirmed by hazard quotient (HQ) and health index (HI) within the study area (Table 6c).\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"4. Discussion","content":" \u003cdiv id=\"Sec22\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e4.1 Concentration and contamination of soils by metals\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eConcentration of metals in soil of the study area (Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab11\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e6\u003c/span\u003e) revealed some of the metals to be above the average crustal value. High concentrations of these metals may be due to persistent artisanal mining of gold that could pose great danger to the environment and health of the community, this was confirmed by the work done by other researcher (Laniyan and Adewumi, 2019; Adewunmi and Laniyan, 2020). Contamination assessment Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab6\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003ea; Fig.\u0026nbsp;4 revealed the metals to pose considerable to high degree of contamination in the study. The result was confirmed by a similar work done by Segzin \u003cem\u003eet al.\u003c/em\u003e 2003 and Duzgoras\u0026ndash;Aydin \u003cem\u003eet al.\u003c/em\u003e 2007.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec23\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e4.2 Potential Sources of Metals in Soil Sediments\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eMetals are known to come from both natural and anthropogenic sources, natural occurrence of metals and geographic mineralogical variation often hamper the accurate assessment of anthropogenic input of metals. The type of mining operation determines the level of metal contamination in soil, with waste release also affecting the form and degree of contamination (Laniyan and Adewumi, 2019). To unravel the potential sources of heavy metals in the soils, bivariate correlation, and hierarchical cluster analysis were employed. Bivariate correlation Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab7\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003e revealed that there is a positive and strong relationship among metals. This indicated that metals in soils of the area might have been released by geogenic and anthropogenic activities especially mining and mineral processing that occurs in the area. Hierarchical cluster analysis further revealed that all the metals are basically from anthropogenic activities with the exception of V and Mn that are from geogenic environment.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec24\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e4.3 Risk of Metals in Soil Sediments\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe mean value of ERI and PERI (Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab8\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e) revealed risk of contaminated soil to the ecological environment, because it affects the local vegetables and microorganisms that helps in a healthy environment. This consequently affects the food chain (Jingzhao et al., 2021). Health risk assessment revealed dermal contact with contaminated sediments pose non\u0026ndash;carcinogenic health risk in both adults and children (Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab11\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e6\u003c/span\u003eb). According to the USEPA (1989) people are at risk of non\u0026ndash;carcinogenic health risk if HI is greater than 1 through different pathways. However, it was revealed that children are more prone to non\u0026ndash;carcinogenic diseases than adults in the area which may be linked to their undeveloped immune systems according to WHO (2011) and could also be as a result of the increased participation of children in mineral processing of artisanal gold mining (Adewumi \u003cem\u003eet al.\u003c/em\u003e, 2019; Adewumi and Laniyan, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e). Igwe, 2010 revealed that 60% of illegal miners are women and children, as it was revealed by that According to USEPA (1989) people are at a risk of carcinogenic health risk if HI is between 10\u003csup\u003e\u0026ndash;4\u003c/sup\u003e and 10\u003csup\u003e\u0026ndash;8\u003c/sup\u003e through different pathways. Carcinogenic health risk showed that adults are prone to this type of health risk through oral ingestion of Cr which has value greater than 10\u003csup\u003e\u0026ndash;4\u003c/sup\u003e (Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab11\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e6\u003c/span\u003eb). Children in this area are not exposed to carcinogenic health hazards in the mining area.\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv id=\"Sec25\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e \u003ch2\u003e4.4 Environmental Protection versus Poverty\u003c/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eArtisanal mining a major source of income for increasing the wealth of rural populations and an important source of alternative means of livelihood, is about the oldest form of mining that exist in both developed and developing countries (Ghanaian Times 2003; UNDP Sustainable Livelihoods Unit (1999). 6.2\u0026nbsp;million people worldwide are employed in artisanal mining. One million are employed in Africa, 4.2\u0026nbsp;million in Asia, Latin America; 30,000 in Ghana and over 500,ooo in Nigeria (Ghanaian Times 2003; UNDP Sustainable Livelihoods Unit (1999). Artisanal miners use rudimentary techniques for mineral extraction and often operate under hazardous, labor-intensive and highly disorganized conditions since most of them get into the business due to poverty and without any basic knowledge (Ghanaian Times 2003).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAn income that comes through artisanal mining opens doors for other sectors that helps to support the growth of most rural communities especially in developing communities; such sectors include agricultural and non- agricultural sectors. Despite this the negative impact of the mining is enormous in terms of health, access to potable drinking water, and environmental degradation. This is due to the use of primitive and low cost technologies by the miners. In their attempt to maximize incomes, they expose both themselves and others to large proportion of neurotoxins. Toxins bioaccumulate in the air and soil, gets leached in the ground water thereby polluting the entire environment by creating a major hazard to both adults and children within the community. It has been deducted by researchers that for every gram of gold produced, 2\u0026ndash;5 grams of mercury and about 3 gram of lead are released into the environment. Such was the 2013 occurrence of lead poisoning that killed over nine hundred children in Zamfara state Nigeria (Makwanya, 2018).Artisanal mining has become an environmental time bomb set to explode at the climax of period due to the impact of the form of mining on the environment and even the ecosystem at large (Makwanya, 2018). The challenge is observed from air pollution through carbon emissions that occurs through the unlocking of carbon stocks done by destroying forests and landscapes, without land-filling or forest regeneration; emission of mercury, lead, and other forms of toxic metals that comes via rock blasting and unconcerned soil roughing by the raw miners which has inevitably led to an environmental eye-sore that can be termed \u0026lsquo;cancer of the environment\u0026rsquo;, other major impact caused by this type of mining is the way holes, gullies and pits are abandoned after excavation which lead to emission ot metals into the atmosphere, trap for both animal and man and even accumulation of metals by plants that rtive to grow in such community. (Makwanya, 2018, Obed et al., 2019)\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMany nations such as Ghana, Zimbabwe had tried to ban ASM because of her destructive ability but they later lift the ban when they realize it contributes to at least 30% of the nation\u0026rsquo;s gross income (Hilson \u003cspan citationid=\"CR18\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e) while means of recycling most of the products emits into the environment is being sourced both by governmental and non-governmental bodies to allay the challenges faced by ASM. Significant pressure is placed on miners now in countries like USA, Canada, Ghana to be more environmentally and socially responsible. Therefore most of the rock waste and mine tailings left to degrade the environment is gradually been turned to a major source of income for the nation. A technological process known as bioleaching is being adopted by some countries. The process uses natural occurring bacterial harmless to both human and the environment to oxidise the sulphide materials left in the tailing and thus stabilizes toxic arsenic emitted into the environment, captures the heavy metals and eliminate the acid mine drainage that could have been created by the mining. Some had even adopted means of turning tha mine tails into concrete, sand and gravel aggregate, ballast of railway, part of raw materials of cement, raw materials to produce all kinds of bricks and tiles etc (Jordan, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR22\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e, Paivo et al., 2018, Junior miners, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e, Leonida, 2019)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"5. Conclusions","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe results of this study on the environmental and health effect of heavy metals distribution from artisanal gold mining on soil and human in selected communities in Ilesa, Osun state revealed that the observed heavy metals in soil samples have their concentrations greater than their respective background values in the parent materials according to the following sequence; Cr\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;Bi\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;Sb\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;Sn\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;W\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;As \u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;Mo\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;Ag\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;Cd. The soils at the artisanal gold mining sites of the selected areas were clearly affected and extremely polluted by W, Bi and Sb. The results of the contamination indices carried out showed that Bi, Sc and V contributed greatly to very high contamination of the soils. This may be due to the persistent artisanal mining of gold which is continuously increasing, with influx of people from different region to mine. This leads to deplorable hygienic conditions and lack of clean and safe drinking water which may adequately cause outbreaks of waterborne diseases and these may pose enormous threat to the environment and health of the inhabitants of the communities. The observed environmental impacts as a result of artisanal gold mining include open pits, land degradation, pollution of the river courses, reduction of soil quality and deforestation as miners fell trees on land probably fertile for agriculture in order to mine. destruction of forest ecosystems which enables availability of food and better protection provided by tall trees for plants, man and animals. Anthropogenic activities from artisanal gold mining would probably affect man as the soil quality which could aid agriculture would have been reduced and probably destroyed, thereby causing an imbalance in beneficial macro\u0026ndash; and microorganisms while the plant and animal population in the forest ecosystem which plays a significant role in ecosystem structuring and functioning would have been affected due to forest fragmentation as a result of artisanal gold mining.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe persistent increase of artisanal gold mining activities if not controlled and mitigated will impose an adverse environmental and health effect on soils and the inhabitants of the selected communities.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA means of remediation most be created by both governmental and non-governmental body to reduce if to clear the impact of ASM on the environment\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA way of recycling some of the media produced during extraction should be done to yield more income to the nation and community the metals\u003c/p\u003e "},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003ch2\u003eAuthor Contribution\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eT.A and T.O wrote the main manuscript and S.S prepared the figures and tables. All authours reviwed the manuscript\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eConflicting Interest\nThe authors have no conflicting Interest\n\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eAdewumi, A.J. and Laniyan, T.A. (2020). Contamination, sources and risk assessments of metals in media from Anka artisanal gold mining area, Northwest Nigeria. \u003cem\u003eScience of the Total Environment\u003c/em\u003e. Accessed August 10, 2020, from https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.scitotenv.2020.137235.\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eAffum, A. O., Dede, S. O., Nyarko, B. J. B., Acquaah, S. O., Kwaansa-Ansah, E. E., Darko, G., ... Fianko, J. R. (2016). Influence of small-scale gold mining and toxic element concentrations in Bonsa river, Ghana: A potential risk to water quality and public health. \u003cem\u003eEnvironmental Earth Sciences\u003c/em\u003e, 75(2), 178. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665- 015-5000-8\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eAfrican Minerals Development Center (AMDC) (2023). Study on ASM in Africa; https://knowledge.uneca.org/asm/whatIS (Validity: October 6 2022 to October 7 2023)\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eAko, T. A., Onoduku, U. S., Oke, S. A., Adamu, I. A., Ali, S. E., Mamodu, A. and Ibrahim A. T. (2014). \u0026ldquo;Environmental Impact of Artisanal Gold Mining in Luku, Minna, Niger State, North Central Nigeria.\u0026rdquo; \u003cem\u003eJournal of Geosciences and Geomatics,\u003c/em\u003e 2(1): 28\u0026ndash;37.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/li\u003e\n \u003cli\u003eAmaku, K. (2013). Death in the Gold Mines of Bagega: What I Witnessed. 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Pharmacol. 48, 150\u0026ndash;156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. etap.2016.10.010.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e"},{"header":"Tables","content":"\u003cp\u003eTable 1 to 6 are available in the Supplementary Files section.\u003c/p\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Heavy metals, Soil, Artisanal, Gold mining, Health, Contamination","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3875505/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3875505/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eArtisanal gold mining a means of livelihood comes with its public health challenge in most Sub-Saharan African countries. The study therefore evaluates extent of artisanal gold mining pollution on the environment and public health in communities within Ilesha Osun Nigeria. The study was field and laboratory based. Thirty\u0026ndash;five (35) top soil samples (0-20cm) were randomly collected around Ijana, Itagunmodi, Epe, Igbadae and Ifewara communities. Samples were analyzed using an Agilent 700 series Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) for the 35 element suite in Acme Laboratory, Canada. Statistical evaluation was done using geo\u0026ndash;accumulation index, enrichment Factor, contamination factor, pollution load index, contamination degree and nemerow pollution Index. The heavy metal pollution level in soils was assessed using potential ecological risk index. Human health risk was assessed using hazard index, carcinogenic risk index and non\u0026ndash;carcinogenic risk index. Results of metal content in the soils revealed wide variation in heavy metal concentration. The mean metal content of soil when compared with crustal average was higher with decreasing order Cr\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;Bi\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;Sb\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;Sn\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;W\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;As \u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;Mo\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;Ag\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;Cd. The results of the contamination indices carried out showed that Bi, Sc and V contributed greatly to very high contamination of the soils. Health risk assessment revealed that the children are more prone to non\u0026ndash;carcinogenic diseases than adults in the area. However, carcinogenic health risk showed that adults are prone to this type of health risk through oral ingestion of Cr. This study therefore uncovered that heavy metals extending over large areas may pose great threat to the environmental media.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Environmental Assessment of Artisanal Gold Mining on Soils of a Community within Southwestern, Nigeria","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2024-01-25 16:20:28","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3875505/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"9ec1dab3-5704-423b-a0ba-3300a1ea8f57","owner":[],"postedDate":"January 25th, 2024","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2024-03-07T14:14:39+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2024-01-25 16:20:28","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-3875505","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-3875505","identity":"rs-3875505","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"_2-kVJe1T_tPrBINL-cwx","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}