Impact of tailings dam failure on spatial features of copper contamination (Mazraeh mine area,Iran)

Mining activities pose a potential risk of metal contamination around mining sites. On May 6, 2010, a tailings dam failure of the Mazraeh copper mine near Ahar in East Azerbaijan province, Iran, released vast amounts of mine wastes. To better understand the magnitude of copper contamination in the waste-affected soils, it is important to assess the spatial distribution of soil copper content at unsampled points. A total of 30 soil samples and their surficial sediments together with the 6 uncontaminated control samples (0–10 and 10–30 cm) were collected along the stream flow that joined Ahar-Chai River. Some of soil properties as well as total copper concentration were determined in all samples. The mean value of the latter in the surface contaminated soils was found to be approximately two times more than controls. Furthermore, the mean concentration of copper in the surface loaded material was 10 times more than the soils. High copper concentrations were observed in surficial sediments of the soils near the broken tailings dam. The Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) method was employed in data analysis. The spherical and Gaussian semivariogram models were properly fitted to the data of copper contents in soils and surficial sediments.