Environmental Pollution of Soil and Anthropogenic Impact of Polymetallic Hydrothermal Extractions: Case Study—Bregalnica River Basin, Republic of Macedonia

The distribution of certain elements, which in higher content represents hazard to the environment, causes certain unwanted consequences on human health. Therefore, the environmental monitoring not only for the lithogenic but also for the anthropogenic distribution leads to determination of the main hot spots in environment. The anthropogenic activities for exploitation of natural resources and their processing represent a global problem of pollution of the environment. Bregalnica river basin in the eastern part of the Republic of Macedonia was selected as a study area with the presence of three potential emission sources: lead and zinc mines (“Zletovo” and “Sasa” mines) and copper mine (“Bucim” mine). Lithogenic and anthropogenic distribution of 69 elements was evaluated in alluvial, automorphic, and paddy soil from Bregalnica river basin. Determination of the total elements’ contents was performed using mass spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma (ICP-MS) and atomic emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma (ICP-AES). The obtained values for the contents of certain potentially toxic elements show significantly higher values in all types of samples taken from the vicinity of the mines, characterized with anthropogenic impacts. Soil analysis indicates that the lithogenic distribution is represented by six geochemical associations. The anthropogenic distribution represents the factor F2 (Cu, Pb, Sb, Cd, Sn, Zn, Te), where the regions of mines cover 90‰ of the contents of these elements. Intensive polymetallic depositions were recorded only in the surroundings of the localities where the hydrothermal extractions are implemented.