Notable case, Baiyun, Shimen (Changde), Hunan, China
Shimen realgar mine
石门雄黄矿
Asia's largest deposit of realgar (arsenic sulphide), in northern Hunan, worked for centuries and closed in 2011. Mining and roasting of the ore left soils with arsenic up to tens of grams per kilo and a population with arsenic skin lesions; the fern Pteris vittata grows wild there and has been used to remediate the fields.
At a glance
- Status
- Remediation under way
- Area
- 900 ha on land1
- Activity
- until 2011
- Media
- soil, surface water, sediment, living organisms
- Kind of site
- mining, smelter, chemical works
- Area. About 9 km² contaminated according to the Chinese press (Legal Weekly, as relayed by Epoch Times, 2014): a press figure, not checked against official sources. The coordinates are those of Shimen County (Wikipedia); the mine lies north-west of the county town.
- People affected. "More than a thousand" villagers poisoned according to the Chinese press (Legal Weekly, relayed by Epoch Times, 2014); no official figure in the sources read.
Contaminants
Status
Remediation under way
The mine has been closed since 2011. A 2022 review reports a remediation project on more than 1,000 mu of fields with Pteris vittata and the revegetation of the tailings pond; in 2023 water, sediment and fish in the area still showed high arsenic levels (Yang and colleagues).
Story
The Shimen realgar deposit, in Baiyun township north-west of the county town, is described as the largest of its kind in Asia, with a mining history of more than 1,500 years. From the 1950s the area was worked intensively: beside the mine there were ore-dressing and smelting plants making arsenic compounds. The government shut the operations down for good in 2011.
Soils in the mining area have been measured at 86 to nearly 44,000 mg/kg of arsenic (Chen and colleagues 2020, cited by Zhou and colleagues 2025); soils around the mine at 83–2,224 mg/kg, mostly as arsenate, with 31–430 mg/kg in earthworms (Yang and colleagues 2018). Huangshui Creek, which drains the mine through alkaline realgar and limestone strata, carried between 688 and 1,152 µg/L of arsenic over the course of a day (Luo and Liu 2023).
The worst affected settlements are the plant workers' community, Heshan, near the smelter, and Wangyangqiao. After closure, work began on remediating the fields with the hyperaccumulating fern Pteris vittata, also intercropped with citrus, and on a plant cover for the tailings pond.
Timeline
- 1950From the 1950s: intensive working of the deposit, with ore dressing and smelting on site.
- 2011The government shuts the mine and plants for good.
- 2016Chen Tongbin and colleagues describe the remediation project for Shimen's contaminated fields (cited in the review by Cao and colleagues, 2022).
- 2023A study still finds high arsenic levels in water, sediment and fish of the closed mining area.
Health
According to Li and colleagues (2020) about 70% of residents in the area have arsenic-related skin lesions and over 50% suffer from chronic generalised itching. In the plant community many men have died of arsenic-related disease: 93% of study participants were women and 28% were widowed. The Chinese press (Legal Weekly, relayed by Epoch Times in 2014) speaks of more than a thousand villagers poisoned and over 300 deaths between 1976 and 1998, figures not checked against official sources.
Remediation
- 2011closurePermanent closure of the mine, dressing plant and smelter.
Plants and fungi at this site
PhytoremediationField scale
Pteris vittata
Remediation project for farmland in Shimen County with medium to heavy contamination (84.2–296.2 mg/kg of arsenic in soil): phytoextraction with Pteris vittata enhanced with activating agents, and intercropping of the fern with citrus. Reported in the table of real-site cases in the review by Cao and colleagues (2022), which cites Chen Tongbin and colleagues (2016) and Ma Zhiqiang (2020); the original articles were not read.
Outcome More than 1,000 mu (about 67 hectares) of fields treated; average removal of soil arsenic above 10%; produce from the intercropping met national standards (Cao and colleagues 2022). A 10% removal is far from bringing these soils within the limits.
PhytoremediationField scale
Pteris vittata, Miscanthus spp.
Revegetation of the realgar tailings pond (2,883 mg/kg of arsenic): imported soil cover and fertiliser, then planting of Pteris vittata or miscanthus, as combined phytoextraction and phytostabilisation. Case reported by the review of Cao and colleagues (2022); the original study was not read and the review gives the Chinese common name of the miscanthus without the species.
Outcome After five years a stable plant cover had established on the tailings dam, with 39 plant species (Cao and colleagues 2022).
MycoremediationLaboratory, with soil from the site
Pteris vittata, Imperata cylindrica
A survey, not a remediation trial: census of the dominant wild plants in three zones of the mining area (dressing, smelting, tailings) and 18S rDNA analysis of the fungi in their rhizosphere, as groundwork for future combined plant-fungus remediation.
Outcome Pteris vittata and Imperata cylindrica are the dominant wild species; fungi of the phyla Glomeromycota, Ascomycota and Basidiomycota prevail in the soils, in proportions that differ from zone to zone (Zhou and colleagues 2025).
From the literature
Species that acted on one of this site's contaminants in at least one study. The list is automatic and takes no account of this site's soil, concentrations or climate.
Plants
- Pteris vittataChinese brake fernEvidence: field
- Arundo donaxGiant reedEvidence: greenhouse
- Azolla carolinianaCarolina mosquito fernEvidence: laboratory
- Lemna minorCommon duckweedEvidence: laboratory
Fungi
- Funneliformis mosseaeEvidence: greenhouse
- Aspergillus nigerBlack mouldEvidence: laboratory
- Fomitopsis pinicolaRed-belted conkEvidence: laboratory
- Mucor circinelloidesEvidence: laboratory
Nearby
Sources
- Li Y., Jing D., Xiao Y., Huang X., Shen M. Patient-Reported Outcomes of Arsenic-Related Skin Lesions in China. BioMed Research International (full text via Europe PMC, PMC7520000), Hindawi, 2020
- Zhou M. et al. Revealing the critical role of in-situ plant and microbe community structure in remediation of typical high-arsenic soil through molecular analysis (full text via Europe PMC, PMC12550955), Frontiers in Plant Science, 2025
- Yang F. et al. Arsenic characteristics in the terrestrial environment in the vicinity of the Shimen realgar mine, China. Science of the Total Environment (abstract), Elsevier, 2018
- Yang F. et al. Concentrations of heavy metals in water, sediments and aquatic organisms from a closed realgar mine. Environmental Science and Pollution Research (abstract), Springer, 2023
- Luo T., Liu J. Field and laboratory investigations on factors affecting the diel variation of arsenic in Huangshui Creek from Shimen Realgar Mine, China. Environmental Geochemistry and Health (abstract), Springer, 2023
- Cao Y. et al. Research progress on phytoextraction technology of arsenic contaminated soil in farmland (in Chinese), Chinese Journal of Environmental Engineering, 2022
- Poisonous Mine Shut Down in China's Hunan Province (relaying Legal Weekly), The Epoch Times, 2014
- Shimen County (coordinates), Wikipedia, 2026
Draft compiled from public sources, not yet reviewed.