American Journal of Engineering Research (AJER) 2014 www.ajer.org Page 134 American Journal of Engineering Research (AJER) e-ISSN : 2320-0847 p-ISSN : 2320-0936 Volume-03, Issue-12, pp-134-138 www.ajer.org Research Paper Open Access Analysis of Zr, Pb and Zn in Soil and Cereal Grown Around Birnin Gwari Artisanal Goldmine, Kaduna State- Nigeria Abdullahi , M.A., Mohammed , S.S. and Aliu, S. O Department of Applied science, College of Science and Technology, Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna- Nigeria. ABSTRACT: Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence technique was used to Analysis the concentration of Zr, Pb and Zn in soil an cereal grown in farm lands around Birnin Gwari Artisanal Goldmine. The mean concentrations of Zr, Pb and Zn in soil are 446.33±5.94mg/kg, 20.83±3.31mg/kg and 61.82±4.88mg/kg respectively while the mean concentrations in maize are 6.51±0.69mg/kg, 11.61±1.14mg/kg and 102.34±3.94mg/kg for Zr, Pb and Zn respectively. The concentration of Zr in soil is higher across all sampling locations while for Pb and Zn the concentration is higher in soil in some locations and higher in maize in other locations. The results indicated that Pb and Zn have elevated concentration in maize which may cause health problem. KEYWORDS: Soil, maize, X-ray fluorescence, concentration Zr, Pb and Zn. I. INTRODUCTION In many developing countries like Nigeria, soils are affected by mine waste disposal, acid deposition, sewage sludge and other anthropogenic and agricultural activities. Heavy metal contamination of arable soils through industrial and anthropogenic activities is a serious problem in Nigeria. The impact of contamination on the environment should be of scientific concern in order to minimize the threat of soil and ground water contamination [1] . Studies have shown that the heavy metals are potentially toxic to crops, animals and humans when contaminated soils are used for crop production [2] . For example, Lead (Pb) affects every organ system in the body. It is absorbed into the body and distributed to the body soft tissue and bones. The central nervous system is the most vulnerable to lead toxicity particularly in developing children [3,4] . A case study is the lead poisoning that killed over 400 children in Zamfara State as a result of illegal mining activities [5] . The total heavy metal content in the soils provide a convenient means of expressing a measure of pollution. Mining and industrial processing are among the main sources of heavy metal contamination in the environment. Mining activities, through milling operations coupled with grinding, concentrating ores and disposal of tailings, along with mill wastewater provide obvious sources of heavy metal contamination of the environment [6,7] . It is, therefore, not surprising that the degree and extent of heavy-metal pollution as a result of human activities has been one of the main topics studied in environmental geochemistry. Heavy metals can cause health problems at higher exposures and destroy aquatic organism when leached into water bodies [8,9] . Metals contamination in aquatic environmental has received huge concern due to their toxicity, abundance and persistence in the environmental and subsequent accumulation in the aquatic habitats [10] . Heavy metal residues in contaminated habitats may accumulate in microorganisms, aquatic flora and fauna, which in turn may enter the human food chain and result in health problems like the lead poisoning problems In this research, the concentration of heavy metals in cereals and soil samples were determined using Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) spectrometric technique. The relation between the cereal and soil metal contents was also investigated. II. MATERIALS AND METHOD Sampling Location : A total of 80 samples were collected comprising of 40 soil samples and 40 maize samples from 3 mining communities of the study area which comprised of Kakani, Farin Ruwa and Tsoho Gwari. Global Positioning System (GPS) was used to determine the location of each farm where samples were collected. The position of each farm is shown in table 1 below.