Determination of Heavy Metal Pollution in Mineral Areas Using Erosion and Sedimentation Indices

Heavy metals are dangerous for our environment due to their toxic and stable behavior in nature. These metals can change the chemical properties of sediments because they move from their sources, i.e., deposition sites, to stream of water. In this regard, mining activities are one of the major sources of heavy metal pollution in environments around the mines. In this study, to evaluate the risk of heavy metals (Cr, Ni, Cr, Zn, Pb&Mn) pollution, a dataset of stream sediment elemental concentration of the 1:100,000 scale Khoy quadrangle map was bult. Due to the fact that the sediment data represent upstream materials of sampling locations, the sample catchment basin method was applied to portray the pollutions. Then uni-element background concentration caused by lithology was calculated by the weighted average method and was applied as a reference value for calculation of sediment quality indices such as Contamination factor, Geoaccumulation index and ecological risk factor. In order to Participation in the Integrated quality indices, the elements with multivariate statistical methods such as Pearson correlation matrix, factor analysis, and hierarchical clustering were investigated. In this research, the study of contaminated basins showed that the sources of contamination were mainly due to the geological features of the area, but in some cases, mineral and human activities were very effective in spreading the contamination. Next, to prioritize the contaminated areas amount sediment discharge was calculated for each basin and according to sediment contamination level, Volumetric production potential and sediment discharge of each basin, those contaminated areas were ranked TOPSIS method.