Relationship among Cyanide Level with Altitude, Depth and Distance of Mooteh Gold Mine in Soil and Groundwater of Mooteh Wildlife Refuge, Esfahan

Sodium cyanide is used in the process of extracting gold from the ore. The waste water that is produced during this process contains high levels of cyanide. The purpose of this study was to determine the levels of cyanide in the waste water of Mooteh Gold mine. We also wanted to investigate effects of distance, depth, and altitude on cyanide dispersion in soil and groundwater of Mooteh Wildlife Refuge.
In April 2012, samples of surface and under ground (0.5 m) soil and groundwater was collected from 11 locations from Mooteh Wildlife Refuge
Total cyanide level was decreased with increasing of altitude, distance from mine and decreasing depth of soil. There is no significant difference between cyanide concentration of surface and ground soils; groundwater and ground soils, respectively. But, there is a significant difference between cyanide concentration of groundwater and surface soils.
Cyanide level is higher than acceptable level in existence wastewater and station number three. Also there are several papers about death wildlife especially Iranian Deer after wastewater overflow from Gold Mooteh Mine in this location. So, managers and officials should be taken more care.