Mining and smelting activities are the main causes for the increasing pollution of heavy metals from water sources. The toxicity of these heavy metals from the mining, milling and smelting companies can cause harmful and even lethal effects on the human health. The objective of this study was to investigate the level of As, Cr, Zn, Mg, Fe, Pb, Cd, Cu, Ag and Mn in well and tap water and assess the degree of pollution in the study area. Atomic Absorption Spectrometry investigation was carried out on 60 samples of water (Well and Tap) collected within and outside the mining and smelting area of Ajaokuta to determine the extent of these heavy metals contamination in their drinking water. The data of heavy metal concentrations reveal that the area has been slightly contaminated with the heavy metals, with As and Cr having the highest level of contamination. Correlation analysis between the selected heavy metals was conducted to further investigate the relationship between the metals. The result shows that these selected metals have common pollution sources related to the mining and smelting activities in the area.

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Mining in the studied area is carried out without any precautionary measure. The radiological implication of this activity was reported in this work. Soil samples were collected from the gold mines and analyzed for activity concentration of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORMs) using NaI (Tl). The average specific activity of 238 U, 232 Th and 40 K were 62.73, 90.66 and 411.27 Bq/kg respectively. The radiological parameters D (nGy/h), AED (mSv/y) and Raeq had average values of 100.89, 0.13 and 224.04 respectively. Furthermore, the radiological hazard indices Hex, Hin, Iγ and Iα had average values of 0.61, 0.78, 0.86 and 0.31 respectively, which were lower than the United Nations Scientific Committee on effects of atomic radiation (UNSCEAR) recommended limit of unity. Finally, the total cancer risk due to NORMs in soil was 7.35 × 10 for the whole populations which was within the USEPA acceptable range of 1.00 × 10 to 1.00 × 10. Therefore, the gold mining activity poses no significant radiological hazard to the members of the public.

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