Concentration of Chemical Elements in the Leaves of the Salix miyabeana Seemen, Growing in the Area of the Tailings Dam of the Darasun Gold Deposit

In the area of the tailings dam of the Darasun gold deposit in the Trans-Baikal Territory, the content of 47 chemical elements in the leaves of the Miabe willow (Salix miyabeana), as well as their gross content in the soil in places where plants grow, were studied to obtain information about the accumulation of elements by the plant on contaminated soils and the prospect of using Miabe willow as a phytoextractor plant. The analysis of plant and soil samples was carried out on an ICP-MS Elan 9000 mass spectrophotometer (Canada). The method of measuring the metal content in solid objects by the ISP-MS method was used. It was found that the gross content of Ag, Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn, W, Hg, B and especially Te, Bi, As and Sb in the soil was 2–840 times higher than the clark of the Earth’s crust. The total content of As, Zn, Pb, Sb and Cd in the soil was 1.3–7.0 times higher than the maximum permissible concentrations (MPC) and approximately permissible concentrations (APC) of chemicals, and the arsenic content exceeded the established limit by 240 times. The concentration of K, Sr, Ti, P, Zn, Ag, As and Cd in the leaves of the Miabe willow exceeded the clark of terrestrial plants by 1.5–3.0 times. A correlation was found between the concentration of Cd, Zn, B, Mn, Be, Ga and V in the leaves of the Miabe willow with the gross content of these elements in the soil of the plant’s growing sites. The storage elements in the plant were Se, P, Cd, Zn, B and K. The coefficient of biological accumulation of Se ranged from 1 to 40, Cd – 1.1–5.8, Zn – 0.5–2.6. Miabe willow is a promising plant for extracting cadmium and zinc from contaminated soils.