Geology and studies of hyperaccumulator plant in Ulu Sokor, Tanah Merah

• Main Author: Nur Afikah Fendy
• Format: Undergraduate Final Project Report
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://discol.umk.edu.my/id/eprint/4659/1/Nur%20Afikah%20Binti%20Fendy.pdf; http://discol.umk.edu.my/id/eprint/4659/
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Kelantan

This research is about using hyperaccumulator plant for determination the distribution of heavy metal around Ulu Sokor, Tanah Merah. Ulu Sokor is well known with gold deposition areas and located quite close to the famous central gold belt. Hyperaccumulator plant able to grow in soil with high concentration of metal and capable to absorb or store the elements inside its body. The distribution of elements concentration could be determined using this plant around the study area in order to identify or locate the primary sources of gold. The plant species identified in this research are Dicranopteris Linearis sp. Bambuseae sp Melastoma malabathricum sp. and senna alata sp. have been selected for elemental analyses using Induced Coupled Plasma (ICP), X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS). The distribution of some elements such as Aluminium (Al), Arsenic (As), Iron (Fe), Lead (Pb), Silver (Ag) and Manganese (Mn) are plotted in a map based on its concentration in order to identify the anomaly. From the map it shows that the location that composed of pyrite mineral contain higher concentration of the heavy metal such as Manganese (Mn) that come from the oxidation of pyrite mineral where the concentration from the ICP analysis recording the higher among the others which is ranging in 155.58ppm. Concentration of heavy metal such Iron (Fe), Silver (Ag), Arsenic (As) and Aluminium (Al) also shown higher in the area close the mining company and for the location of highly weathered area lead to the increasing of Iron (Fe) concentration.