Evaluation of Chemical contaminate of soil and salt collected from Al Shiqqah mining area
Authors:   Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Qassim University, Buraidah 51452, Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Ard elshifa. M. E. , Alrasheedi Muneera. ,   Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Qassim University, Buraidah 51452, Saudi Arabia
Published: January 2025

The mining soils in Kingdom Saudi Arabia have accumulated heavy metals, causing considerable contamination and grave environmental danger. This research highlights the amount of metal pollution in the central part of Saudi Arabia, especially in Al Shiqqah
mining area at Qassim region. The study aims to evaluate the level of trace metal contamination in the Surface soil. Also, the objective of this study to determine the degree of pollution and potential ecological harm posed by trace metals.
Soil and salt samples were taken at random for four soil profiles at the surface (0–25 centimeter) and surface (25–50 centimeter). Heavy metals like manganese, nickel, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper and lead were measured in Al-Shiqqah mining samples by using atomic absorption spectroscopy instrument and the results were statistically analyzed. The study determined the concentrations of manganese, nickel,
cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper and lead in the surface and surface soils, to evaluate the degree of pollution and possible ecological hazards by utilizing the geo-accumulation index, contamination factor, degree of contamination and statistical analysis.
Overall, the metals’ geo-accumulation index values in soil under investigation show: the subsequent downward tendency manganese¿ nickel¿ cadmium¿ cobalt¿ chromium¿ copper¿ lead. In the studied area, the geo-accumulation index associated with the seven investigated metals was high for manganese and was significantly too low for lead, cobalt, and copper. Cadmium and nickel give moderate pollution levels.
Contamination levels of trace elements were calculated by contamination factor suggesting that soil was very highly contaminated with manganese and cadmium and extremely low in copper, chromium, and lead contamination, polluted with cadmium is moderately, and strongly with nickel. The degree of contamination, the readings for the soil samples showed that they were very low in lead, chromium, and
copper, very high in degree of contamination with cobalt, moderately polluted with manganese and nickel, and highly contaminated with cadmium. According to the findings, the manganese concentrations in soil samples for the surface, salt, surface at depth 25 centimeter and surface at depth 50 centimeter were determined to be 5427.7998, 656.6250, 7037.7002, and 6853.7002 milligram per kilogram, respectively.
These results were discovered to be greater than the WHO-permitted limits, which are 740 milligram per kilogram for soil.
The result illustrated that the contamination with heavy metals was high when in contrast to the soil’s standard concentration of trace elements. Generally, it is possible to determine the natural or anthropogenic sources of heavy metals in soils by using multivariate analysis in conjunction with geo-accumulation index, contamination factor, degree of contamination value as helpful tools. The information gained can be used to better plan and implement remediation efforts and enhance the environmental conditions in areas affected by mining soil.