During the last half-century, China has produced a huge amount of mining tailings. Due to past unreasonable rapid development and exploration, these tailings still contain a considerable level of heavy metals which would transfer into surrounding soils and ground water under natural conditions posing a threat to human health and the environment. In this study, tailing samples taken from two different mining areas were analyzed via XRD, XRF, and leaching toxicity analysis. XRF analysis shows that As (Arsenic), Cu (Copper), Cd (Cadmium), Cr (Chrome), Ni (Nickel), and Zn (Zinc) are the main heavy metals in these tailing samples, while in the leachate only Cd and Zn were detected suggesting that Cu (0.0158%), Ni (0.0091%), and Cr (0.0232%) are associated to stable metal bearing-phases and consistent with the XRD analysis. Existing phases of heavy metals in tailing samples vary significantly depending on sampling locations. Our investigation on heavy metal phase and leaching properties in tailings provides clues for heavy mental pollution remediation in mining areas.
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