Banzi, Firmi B.; Msaki, Peter K.; Mohammed, Najat K.
Description:
Tanzania is at advance stages in the preparation to start uranium mining at Mkuju River Deposit. In order to
implement best practice in environmental management in uranium mining as required by national and
international regulations and standards, a set of site specific baseline data have to be established prior the mining
operation. In order to establish heavy metal baseline data for this purpose, a total of 84 soil samples were
collected from clustered area of about 1,300 km2 at two depths: 0-15 cm and 15-30 cm. Analysis of the data
using EDXRF showed a total metal concentration ranges of 3570-19400 for Al, 15200-58600 Fe, 400-1400 Mn,
15.2-54.9 Cr, 13.5-51.0 Zn, 2.2-45.3 Pb, 2.1-37.3 Cd, 0.2-23.0 Hg, 1.8-25.1Cu, 2.1-22.7 Ni and 0.8-9.1
mgkg-1for Co. Since the spatial distributions of heavy metals in the vicinity of the planned uranium mine are
comparable to established global concentration ranges in soils, it is an indication that the distribution is natural.
By virtue of their strong association with uranium and immobility in soil, spatial distributions of lead and copper
concentrations would be more sensitive indicators for monitoring uranium related soil contaminants when the
uranium mine become operational.