Assessing Exposure Hazards and Metal Analysis Resulting from Bauxite Samples Collected from a Saudi Arabian Mine

Abstract

Natural occurring radionuclides are present in many natural resources. Human activities may enhance concentrations of radionuclides and/or enhance potential exposure to naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM). Industrial residues containing radionuclides have been receiving considerable global attention because of the large amounts of NORM-containing wastes and the potential long-term risks of long-lived radionuclides [1]. They have become concentrated and exposed not only to the environment but also to mine workers. Actually, there are a number of authors who have published papers about radiation hazard assessment resulting from phosphate, oil, or gas production [2]. Although aluminum has been widely used in industry, there are few studies focusing on radiation risk from bauxite or red mud [3]. Table 1 shows the range of radionuclides concentrations in bauxite. The activity concentrations of 238 U and 232 Th were high because 238 U and 232 Th decay series depends on geological composition. O'Connor [4-5] measured natural activity concentrations in bauxite, solid residues, and red mud resulting from alumina production in western Australia. 238 U concentration results were 120-350

Study and dispersion of radionuclides and heavy metals in coastal areas of Greece, characterized by active and past mining activities

“…bauxite, copper, uranium), while combined investigations of these parameters in the marine environment for on-going and abandoned mines are absent. Nevertheless, among the studies which combined the metal-radionuclide concentrations, some key elements are commonly measured, such as 226 Ra, 232 Th, As, Cu, Pb, Zn, Mn, Al and Fe (Giri et al, 2011;Wennrich et al 2004;Doering &Bollhofer, 2016;Grygar et al 2016;Bai et al, 2017;Liang et al, 2017;Alashrah & El-Taher, 2018;Noli &Tsamos, 2018), indicating a required investigation of these elements in different type of mines.…”

“…However, as previously mentioned these studies have not been performed for radioactivity. An effort has been attempted in recent years to fill the gap of combined metal-radionuclide studies, thus spatial investigations have been performed in soil media (Liang et al, 2017;Bai et al, 2017;Alashrah and El-Taher, 2018) and milk (Giri et al, 2011) amongst other matrices (Doering & Bollhofer, 2016). In additiona, vertical investigations have been applied in streams, river and lakes (Wennrich et al 2004;Pavlovic et al 2005;Grygar et al 2016;Noli & Tsamos 2018).…”