Sieving as a decontamination method for metal contaminated soil

Toxic metals contaminate soil worldwide and thus serve as sever environmental threat. Therefore the purposes of this study were to investigate in which soil fractions that different heavy metals (Fe, As, Cu, Zn and Pb) could be found in contaminated soils and if it is possible to use sieving as a method for decontamination. Soil samples were collected from three different locations, the Nasa silver mine, the Blaiken-mine and Svalget environmental station. The samples were oven dried and later on sieved into six different fractions 8mm, 4 mm, 0.5 mm, 0.250mm, 0.063 mm and <0.063 mm. The fractions 4 mm, 0.5 mm and <0.063 mm from each location were analyzed in an x-ray fluorescence detector. The results showed that in general the smallest fractions contained the highest concentration of heavy metals which was very clear for Pb where 5 out of 6 samples had the highest concentration in the smallest fraction. The highest concentration of Cu (1147 ppm) and Zn (1117 ppm) were found in the smallest fraction in samples from the location Svalget. The highest concentration of Pb (10042 ppm) was also found in the smallest fraction in samples from Blaiken. In similarity the highest concentration of As (13305 ppm) was found in the smallest fraction in samples from the Nasa mine. However, in most samples the difference between the smallest fractions and the coarser material was small. Sieving may therefore not be the best way to decontaminate soil because even the larger fractions contained high concentrations of heavy metals