ICP/AAS ANALYSIS OF HAIR SAMPLES OF MINERS IN INDISCRIMINATE MINING AREA OF GOLD IN ABU HAMMED CITY, SUDAN

In present study, human head hair samples were collected from River Nile State, Abu-hamad locality. The sampling area was divided in two locations with 30 samples were taken from Washers (location one) and Evaporators (location two). Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) was used to identify these elements (Ni, Cu, Pb and As) and Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) used to determine the elements (Cu, Cd and Pb) in human hair samples. The mean elemental concentration of Ni, Cu, As and Pb in location one by ICP were 0.13, 0.10, 0.21 and 0.23 ppm while the mean elemental concentrations in location two were 0.14, 0.09, 0.23 and 0.30 ppm respectively. The mean elemental concentration of Cu, Cd and Pb in location 1 by AAS were 0.038, < LOD, < LOD ppm and 0.012 ppm while the mean elemental concentrations in location 2 were 0.027, 0.024, 0.069 ppm and 0.048 ppm respectively. The obtained results show that the lowest concentration values of elements were found in Location (Loc1) compared to elemental concentration found in Location (Loc2). The correlation for the various elements was determined. Also clusters analysis was performed. The enrichment factor (EF) of elements was calculated using Fe as a reference element. Comparisons between this study and data from literature were done