RADIOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF CONTAMINATION FROM GOLD MINING IN (ILE IFE) OSUN STATE NIGERIA

Radiological contaminations of the human environment due to anthropogenic activities have been associated with significant human health challenges. Materials from gold mining site in (Ile ife) Osun state Nigeria were evaluated. A comparison was made with soil samples from the control area. Twenty surface soil samples collected, Five soil samples each at the North, south, west and east area at random from Ajigbona artisanal gold mining site in ile ife were assessed for their radiological contents using gamma spectrometric technique which employs NaI (Tl) detector. Radiological hazard parameters were also computed from the measured activity concentrations in order to assess the level of exposure of the miners and the public to ionising radiation. Specific activities of 40K 238U and 232Th are presented in Appendix A. Specific activity concentrations of 40k, 238U and 232Th vary from 462.17±9.83 to 779.48± 9.33 Bq.kg-1 , 14.24± 0.44 to 33.08± 1.07 Bq.kg-1 and 5.42±1.09 to 39.10± 1.78 Bq.kg-1 respectively, with mean values of 620.825, 23.66 and 22.26Bq.kg-1 in sequence. Radiological assessment parameters calculated from these activity concentrations were higher than recommended safe limits. In particular, calculated average values for the external hazard (Hex) and the internal hazard (Hin) from the mine site were found to be 0.3 and 0.3. Both these values were lower than unity, therefore it is not of risk to the environment.