INVESTIGATIONS OF NORM AND POSSIBLE CONTAMINATION OF WATER AROUND GOLD MINING SITES OF BIRNIN GWARI, NORTH WESTERN NIGERIA USING NaI(Tl) AND AAS

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Date
2014-10
Authors
ABDULKARIM, MOHAMMED SANI
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Abstract
Thirty six soil and thirty six water samples from gold mining sites of Birnin- gwari in Kaduna state were analyzed for potassium (K-40), thorium (Th-232), Radium (Ra-226) and Heavy Metals (Hg, Cu, Ni, Mn, Cr, Zn, Pb, Fe)activity. The activity of soil was determined using NaI Tl detector and Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer for heavy metals concentration in water. Most of these mining sites were discovered to have a combined Th-232 and K-40 activity in excess (Th-232 18.13±3.1 to 102.62±1.9 Bq/kg with mean value of 51.95 Bq/kg and K-40 19.75±6.2 to 862.20±13.9 Bq/kg with mean value of 464.65 Bq/kg) which are against world health organization (WHO) regulations. Most of these samples contained insignificant amounts of Ra-226. The activity of radium found in all of the samples was below world health organization (WHO) standard Ra- 226(0.1506±.03 to 5.67±.03 Bq/kg with mean value of 2.31 Bq/kg) . In water samples Fe has higher concentration (0.69mg/l to 72.12mg/l with average of 12.21mg/l. mg/l). The concentrations of Mercury, copper, Nickel, Manganese, Lead and Iron metals were found to be above World Health Organization and Nigeria Standard for Drinking water Quality (NSDWQ) limit in these samples, while Chromium and Zinc was found to be below the permissible limit.
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A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR AWARD OF A MASTER DEGREE IN PHYSICS. DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS, FACULTY OF SCIENCE AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA NIGERIA OCTOBER, 2014
Keywords
INVESTIGATIONS,, NORM,, POSSIBLE CONTAMINATION,, GOLD MINING SITES,, BIRNIN GWARI,, NORTH WESTERN NIGERIA,, NaI(Tl),, AAS.
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