Environmental Survey of the Distribution and Metal Contents of in Arsenic-Lead-Mercury-Contaminated Gold Mining Areas along the Bone River in Gorontalo Province, Indonesia.

In this paper, we report ecological and environmental investigations on in the As-Pb-Hg-polluted Bone River area, Gorontalo Province, Indonesia. The density distribution of decreases from around the artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) site to the lower reaches of the Bone River, and it is rarely found near Gorontalo City. The maximum concentrations of As, Hg, and Pb recorded in the soil samples were 401, 36, and 159 mg kg, respectively, with their maximum concentrations in recorded as 17,700, 5.2, and 39 mg kg, respectively. Around the ASGM sites, the concentrations of As, Pb, and Hg in were highest in the study area. These data suggest that , a hyperaccumulator of As, may be useful as a bioindicator for assessing environmental pollution by Pb and Hg.