Feasibility of Phytoremediation for Metal-Contaminated Abandoned Mining Area

This study was carried out to provide information for the present status of soil pollution near abandoned old-zinc mining area through analysis of bound form and 0.1 N-HCl extractable concentrations of heavy metals in soils and plants. Feasibility of endemic plants for phytoremediation was evaluated by the investigation of vegetation in soils. Cd contents of the selected samples near old-zinc mining soils ranged from 0.2 to . Nonagricultural soils near the mining area contained great amounts of Zn, Pb, Cd, and Cu than the paddy and upland soils. Some Korean wild plants, Artemisia princeps, Artemisia montana, Erigeron canadensis, and Pueraria thunbergiana, were found to grow vigorously in the studied area. Among them, Artemisia princeps was selected as a possible phytoremediator for cleaning heavy metal contaminated soils. Artemisia princeps contained about 43 and of Cd in their root and shoot as dry weight, respectively. Average contents of Cd in the rhizosphere soil, , was slightly higher than the soil-root interface soils, . Sequential extraction of Cd contaminated soils showed that average (about 7%) of cadmium existed as exchangeable form and the average amounts increased as follows : adsorbed