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Using natural plant regeneration approaches in mine reclamation of abandoned illegal mined out spoils in Ghana

British Columbia Mine Reclamation Symposium; University of British Columbia. Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering

With the recent occurrence of artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) in Ghana, the effect of heavy metal accumulations and devegetation on the natural environment is increasing. The use of plants has been suggested to be an eco-friendly approach that have the ability to remove heavy metals used in the mining activities. There is a formalized interventions particularly used by commercial large scale mining establishments, but in the case of ASM there is paucity of knowledge in which naturally regenerated plant species could be used as an effective reclamation tool in heavy metal removal and promoting pioneer species recovery on abandoned illegal mining sites. In this study, we characterized two mining methods (alluvial and chamfi) and explored the extent and ability of early succession regenerating plants to remediate heavy metals at these sites after four (4) years of mining cessation. A randomised sampling approach used on selected plots made from 54 abandoned mined out sites (27 alluvial and 27 chamfi) and their respective controls (54 unmined areas) were demarcated for seedling and sapling assessments and plant-soil heavy metal interaction. A total of 6,157 seedlings belonging to 133 species and 536 saplings belonging to 42 species were recorded. Pielou's evenness and Shannon indices showed that both seedlings and saplings were equitably distributed between mined-out sites and their controls for both methods. A high bioaccumulation factor was recorded in the roots of plants located within the alluvial mining sites compared to that of the soils in the chamfi mining sites for heavy metals of Lead and Arsenic. A higher Translocation Factor (TF) was recorded for alluvial sites compared to the chamfi sites, which recorded lower levels of TF. Natural regenerated vegetation has the ability to enhance biodiversity recovery of the numerous abandoned ASM sites either than the known artificial reclamation practised.

Conference Paper

eng

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0447204

Non UBC

Other

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