Abstract

Taltal is a commune located in Northern Chile, where former activities in copper ores processing left large amounts of mining waste enriched with potentially toxic elements, PTE. A soil pollution assessment using geochemistry and spatial distribution maps was conducted. A total of 101 surrounding soil samples from 3 abandoned mining waste sites (S1, S2, and S3) were taken to determine their content of PTE (Cu, Mo, Sb, Hg, Pb, Ni, Co, As, Mn, Cr, Cd, and Zn) and major elements. As guideline values of PTE in soils have not been established, the soil pollution index (PI) was assessed by comparing the soil PTE concentrations with the regional geochemical baseline (GBL) values and, for the first time, health risk for residents near Taltal city was evaluated.