Spatial-temporal analysis and background value determination of molybdenum concentration in basins with high molybdenum geochemical background - A case study of the upper Yi River basin

Abstract

The environmental background value of the river section is important. It can be used to evaluate the effect of pollution control of the upstream of that river section, analyze the trend of environmental pollution, and assist the government to make decisions. Yi river is the main tributary of the Yellow River. In the headwaters of the Yi river, there are two very large molybdenum mines with a history of mining and smelting of many years. This area is also a region with a high molybdenum geochemical background. Using the collected regional molybdenum geochemical map, historical monitoring data, sampling data, remote sensing image, and spatial information of mineral enterprises, we found two reasons of why the molybdenum concentration is unusual in the basin. The first reason is the area is a high molybdenum region. The second reason is that the inherent solubility of molybdenum in the soil is changed due to human engineering activities. In this paper, we did a linear fitting on the soil samples and water samples collected from the natural areas and areas affected by human mining activities, and established a leaching model. By comparing the leaching capability of molybdenum in the soil of different areas, we found that the molybdenum release capability in areas affected by human mining was much higher than that in natural areas. Finally, this paper proposed a method to analyze the contribution rate of molybdenum concentration of this river section, using a combination of the leaching model and the D8 algorithm. The experimental results showed that the contribution rate of natural factors and human influence factors at the exit section of Yi River was 81.38% and 18.62% respectively. The background molybdenum concentration in this section was 0.16 mg/L.