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Mining and smelting activities are the main causes for the increasing pollution of heavy metals in soil, water body and stream sediment. An environmental geochemical investigation was carried out in and around the Panzhihua mining and smelting area to determine the extent of chemical contamination in soil and sediment. The main objective of this study was to investigate the environmental geochemistry of Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Cu, Pb, Zn and As in soil and sediment and to assess the degree of pollution in the study area. The data of heavy metal concentrations reveal that soils and sediments in the area have been slightly contaminated. Geochemical maps of Igeo of each heavy metal show that the contaminated sites are located in V-Timagnetite sloping and smelting, gangues dam. The pollution sources of the selected elements come mainly from dusts resultant from mining activities and other three-waste-effluents. The area needs to be monitored regularly for trace metal, especially heavy metal enrichment.

A total of 31 topsoil samples were systematically collected from the Panzhihua mining area including steel smelting, coal mining, urban and rural districts. A normalization procedure was adopted to establish the environmental geochemical baseline models for this area. By using the above baseline models, the regional geochemical baseline values of As, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn were determined. On the basis of the baselines, the enrichment factors were used to analyze the mechanism of trace metal pollution in topsoil from anthropogenic sources, and the results showed that the serious trace metal pollution is caused by human activities in coal mine, iron mine, smelting factory, tailing dam and other industrial districts in the Panzhihua area.