January 27, 2022: The University of Nottingham in England said on January 20 it was examining the extent of lead pollution around abandoned mines in Wales in terms of what impact they have had on the health of wild and farmed animals in the vicinity.
Andrea Sartorius and Lisa Yon, from the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, are leading the study, which began a couple of years ago and is now being analysed with a view to cleaning the sites up.
It looked at two of the 1,300 abandoned mines in Wales, many of which are next to water courses. “While metal exposure may seem like a thing of the past, since metals do not degrade, metal pollution from hundreds or even thousands of years ago can still be present in the landscape today,” said Sartorius.
“At mine sites, cleaning efforts are mainly focused on redirecting water flow away from mines and covering up the soil and mine waste with a thick layer of clay-based soil to prevent leaching.
“Other options include removing soil from the site, and a lot of work is going into research whether some plants can effectively remove metals from soil.”
Mining was a big industry in Wales in the 13th and early 14th centuries, according to Natural Resources Wales (NRW), before it was halted by the Black Death (bubonic plague), which killed up to 200 million people in Europe, Asia and North Africa between 1346 and 1353.
Lead was used for many other applications before its toxicity was identified, such as jewellery, coins, pipes and ammunition.
Mining picked up again and peaked in the second half of 19th century, when mining techniques improved and the industrial revolution increased demand.
Between 1845-1938 lead production accounted for 25% of the total United Kingdom output, until large deposits were found in Spain, South America and Australia at the end of the century, and it became cheaper to import the metal than mine it. There was a brief resurgence in Wales between 1952-1954.
“Abandoned metal mines are among the main sources of water pollution in Wales and NRW is committed to a programme of measures to deal with some of the most polluting sites,” said Paul Edwards, senior environmental assessment officer with NRW. “The research by the University of Nottingham will help us to target these measures to maximize the benefits to ecology and animal health in our rivers and on the land surrounding these sites.”
Sartorius says they plan to share all research results through open access publications, conferences and press releases.
“We are hoping to foster communication around the world of how to best study and tackle this global issue,” she said.
