SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF HEAVY METALS IN THE SOILS OF BAIUT AREA, MARAMURES COUNTY, ROMANIA

Soil pollution is one of the key issues requiring priority resolution in a small mining area Baiut - Varatic. A field survey was conducted to investigate the metal contamination in soils of Baiut Varatec base metal mining area, near Baia Mare, northwestern Romania. Based on detailed geochemical and mineralogical analyses, carried out on soil samples, dump samples and tailing dam samples were made pollutant distribution maps. The results show high values for Cu, Pb, Cd, Zn,Ni and As. The values for heavy metals in soil are between 17.23 - 2184.1 ppm for Cu, 18.98 - 6362 ppm for Pb, 101.12 - 2834.7 ppm for Zn, 0.12-20.9 ppm for Cd, 1.52 - 311.4 ppm for Ni and between 0.004 - 266.7 ppm for As. The analysis of distribution maps for all elements clearly marked polluted areas that are close to the sources of pollution, waste dumps and tailings dams. The main environmental impact of the Varatec Baiut mine consists in soil contamination with heavy metals through acid mine drainage. The final results illustrated that the environment has been polluted by industrial activities.