ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Toxicology, Pollution and the Environment
This article is part of the Research TopicSustainable Mining Practices and Restoration of Marginal LandsView all articles
Characterizing the source contributions and spatial controls of heavy metals in stream sediments in northwestern China's mining areas
Provisionally accepted
Sheng Xue1,2Changwei Qi3,4*Yongsheng Zhong5Bingyan Ji1,2Zhao An3,4
Shenglin Ma1,2*Zhenghui Li6Shengfu Li1,2Guoxia Wang1,2- 1Qinghai Fourth Geological Exploration Institute, Xining, China
- 2Qinghai Key Laboratory of Shale Gas Resources, Xining, China
- 3Qinghai Geological Survey, Xining, China
- 4MNR Technology Innovation Center for Exploration and Exploitation of Strategic Mineral Resources in Plateau Desert Region, Xining, China
- 5Western Mining Co.,Ltd, Xining, China
- 6PowerChina Qinghai Electric Power Engineering Co., Ltd, Xining, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Heavy metal pollution in stream sediments of the Qaidam Basin, northwestern China, has attracted widespread attention due to its environmental and ecological implications. Estimate of the sources of heavy metals in sediments and their driving factors is a pre-requisite for the management and control of heavy metal pollution. In this study, a large number of stream sediment samples (n=8280) from typical alluvial fans in the Qaidam Basin were collected for heavy metal analysis. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) was employed to explore their sources and spatial contributions. The findings indicate that mineralization (39.1%) and soil parent material (34.3%) are the predominant sources of heavy metals in sediments, accounting for over 70% of the total. The contributions of industrial activities (19.1%) and atmospheric deposition (7.4%) are significant and cannot be disregarded. Furthermore, the presence of heavy metals in stream sediments demonstrates significant spatial variability (p<0.05). The spatial distribution of natural sources is subject to the influence of geological conditions, exhibiting congruence with the spatial distribution of strata and structures. This study provides a foundation for implementing site-specific heavy metal risk mitigation strategies in mining areas.
Keywords: heavy metals, Mining area, Positive matrix factorization, sediments, spatial variability
Received: 11 Nov 2025; Accepted: 10 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xue, Qi, Zhong, Ji, An, Ma, Li, Li and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Changwei Qi
Shenglin Ma
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.