Illegal gold mining carried out using amalgamation techniques produce mercury waste which can then damage the environment and damage the health of residents. The negative impact due to the use of mercury is dead fish, contaminated river water, water quality below environmental standard quality and spreading in the food chain. This has caused environmental damage, one of which is in terms of land and water. This condition is the basis for conducting deeper research on environmental damage by mercury waste, especially in terms of soil and water. The sampling method used is the Geochemical Method and Geoelectric Method. Geoelectric samples were taken using the superstring R8 tool. Geochemical samples used were soil and water samples which were subsequently tested by the Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (AAS) and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) methods to see the mercury levels that had been scattered in the research location. The study aims to determine the distribution of mercury waste and its levels. This research includes sampling, sample testing, data processing and analysis, and making maps of the distribution of mercury waste through QGis software. From the study, it was found that the distance from the traditional gold mining processing location determines the concentration level (Hg). Analysis using AAS shows that there were 13 samples had mercury concentrations above the critical threshold. From the analysis, it is also known that AAS could not detect mercury levels in soil samples which is different from the results obtained using XRF.

The physical and chemical environmental impact in a mining area is inevitable, particularly for open pit mining areas. The impact could affect soil and water quality where mining activities, such as land clearing, blasting and hauling, occur. Thus, environmental monitoring in mining areas should be taken to measure the impact of mining activity for reclamation purposes. The objective of this research focuses on the measure of environmental impact on soil quality in terms of the nutrient content in an abandoned mine area at Jantang village, Lhoong, Aceh Besar. The research was conducted by collecting 15 soil samples, followed by laboratory analysis using atomic absorption spectrophotometry to investigate sampled 'soil's nutrients which are pH, Carbon (C-organic), Nitrogen (N-total), Phosphor (P-availability), and Ferro substance (Fe-concentration). In addition, to estimate the soil properties at locations outside the sampling area, a spatial interpolation method called inverse distance weight with an optimum power was used. The result shows that the soil is acidic, with low C-organic in the range of 0.02%–1.84%, N-total 0.02%–0.16%, and P-availability 0.55%–3.75%. In contrast, the Fe-concentration is very high, at 3000–3400 ppm.

Hydrocarbon prospect area research has been done in North Aceh at two locations. The research aims to analyze subsurface litology using  resistivity method. Data acquisition of each location was presented by 330 m line survey. The acquisition process was generated by Super Sting R8/IP and modelled by EarthImager 2D. Oil and gas (NA1) resistivity section showed anomaly at 170 m (x) and 17 m (z) that was identified as minor fault. However, oil seepage was not founded on the location. Fossil locality (NA2) section showed a contrast vertical anomaly (16-90 Ωm) around 90 – 120 m that was identified as a way for the seepage.