Environmental pollutants in the mining environs of Konongo in the Ashanti Region of Ghana

The study was made to determine whether the present practice of gold mining at Konongo had affected the quality of Konongo fauna, flora and waterbed sediment. The possible environmental pollutants in the mining environs of Konongo are CN, Zn, Pb, B, and Mn. Zn, Pb and Mn were determined by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. Calorimetric procedure was adopted to determine B. CN was determined by titration with rhodamine indicator. Accumulation of pollutants in waterbed sediment, fauna and flora was in the range of 0.011 - 0.064 μgg-1 for CN; 0.188 - 1.17 μgg-1 for Zn; 0.015 - 0.122 μgg-1 for Pb; 0.101- 2.76 μgg-1 for Mn and 0.05 - 0.60μgg-1 for B. The significant differences observed with respect to the concentrations of the pollutants at different locations in the sampling area were due to the divergence of the level of pollution. It is inferred from the results that the mining environs of Konongo are not polluted to any extent by the mining processes and that if the present surveillance of the discharge of wastes was maintained, mining could continue without any adverse effect on Konongo environs. (au)