Notable case, Lengshuijiang (Loudi), Hunan, China
Xikuangshan antimony mine
锡矿山
The world's largest known antimony deposit, in Hunan, mined and refined on site for more than a century. Soils around the mine hold antimony up to tens of grams per kilo: it is the reference site for studying antimony in the environment and the plants that tolerate it, such as ramie.
At a glance
- Status
- Under assessment
- Media
- soil, groundwater, surface water, living organisms
- Kind of site
- mining, smelter
- Area. The mineralised area crops out over 14 km² (Wikipedia); the extent of contaminated soil is not quantified in the sources read.
Contaminants
Status
Under assessment
The mine and smelter appear as active in the studies consulted (2011–2025), which deal mainly with characterising soils, water and plants. No official clean-up programme with published results was found: the status given reflects only the scientific literature read.
Story
At Xikuangshan ("tin mine mountain", because tin was sought there in 1521) stibnite is hosted in Devonian limestone. According to Wikipedia average annual antimony output was about 12,500 tonnes from 1892 to 1929 and 5,500 from 1949 to 1981; the ore is concentrated and refined on site, in a refinery with a capacity of 10,000 tonnes a year.
Mining and smelting have spread antimony, arsenic and other elements. At the most contaminated spots in the area 610–54,221 mg/kg of antimony and 40–400 mg/kg of arsenic have been measured (Wei and colleagues 2011); in soils that include a paddy field and a vegetable garden, 527–11,798 mg/kg of total antimony, with a bioavailable fraction of 6.3–748 mg/kg, nearly all as Sb(V) (Okkenhaug and colleagues 2011). Chinese-language Wikipedia reports, from a 2010 article, about 11 ppm of antimony in groundwater.
Wild plants accumulate a great deal of antimony: 109–4,029 mg/kg in the native species analysed by Okkenhaug. Ramie (Boehmeria nivea), a fibre crop common in the area, grows even on the most polluted mine spoils and is the species on which phytoremediation studies concentrate, together with trees such as paper mulberry and glossy privet.
Timeline
- 1521First mining, in search of tin (Wikipedia).
- 1892Start of the antimony production documented by Wikipedia (about 12,500 t a year until 1929).
- 2009Antimony, arsenic and mercury measured in residents' hair.
- 2011First studies of antimony speciation and bioavailability in the site's soils and plants.
- 2019Study of bacterial communities in the rhizosphere of the trees used for phytoremediation.
Health
Hair from residents of the mining area averaged 15.9 µg/g of antimony, 4.21 of arsenic and 1.79 of mercury, against 0.532, 0.280 and 0.338 in Guiyang, the comparison city (Liu and colleagues 2009). No epidemiological studies of health effects were found.
Plants and fungi at this site
PhytoremediationField scale
Broussonetia papyrifera, Ligustrum lucidum
Two areas around the mine, Changlongjie (acid soil, pH 4.7–5.2) and Lianmeng (near-neutral pH), where paper mulberry and glossy privet grow, described as metal-accumulating trees. Guo and colleagues compared rhizosphere and bulk soil: metals, pH and bacterial communities. The study does not say when or by whom the trees were planted.
Outcome In both areas antimony and chromium were lower in the rhizosphere of the two trees than in bulk soil, as in general were zinc and cadmium. Bacterial diversity was higher in the rhizosphere, especially under paper mulberry, which raised pH in the acid soil and lowered it in the near-neutral one. This is a comparison between points, not a measure of removal over time.
MycoremediationField scale
Boehmeria nivea, Glomus spp.
Survey of four mine spoils and one reference area: colonisation and diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in the roots and rhizosphere of ramie, an antimony-accumulating plant. An observational study, not an inoculation trial.
Outcome The symbiosis establishes even at the most polluted points and root colonisation rises with soil antimony; spore numbers and fungal diversity first rise then fall along the gradient. Fourteen species were identified, with Glomus the dominant genus (Wei and colleagues 2015).
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
- Agrostis capillarisCommon bentEvidence: field
- Arabidopsis halleriHaller's rockcressEvidence: field
- Cannabis sativaIndustrial hempEvidence: field
- Eichhornia crassipesWater hyacinthEvidence: field
- Festuca rubraRed fescueEvidence: field
- Noccaea caerulescensAlpine pennycressEvidence: field
Fungi
- Funneliformis mosseaeEvidence: greenhouse
- Paxillus involutusBrown roll-rimEvidence: greenhouse
- Rhizophagus irregularisEvidence: greenhouse
- Aspergillus nigerBlack mouldEvidence: laboratory
- Mucor circinelloidesEvidence: laboratory
- Agaricus bisporusButton mushroomEvidence: laboratory
The rest are on the contaminant pages.
Nearby
Sources
- Okkenhaug G., Zhu Y.G., Luo L., Lei M., Li X., Mulder J. Distribution, speciation and availability of antimony (Sb) in soils and terrestrial plants from an active Sb mining area. Environmental Pollution 159 (abstract), Elsevier, 2011
- Wei C., Deng Q., Wu F., Fu Z., Xu L. Arsenic, antimony, and bismuth uptake and accumulation by plants in an old antimony mine, China. Biological Trace Element Research (abstract), Springer, 2011
- Guo D. et al. Changes in rhizosphere bacterial communities during remediation of heavy metal-accumulating plants around the Xikuangshan mine in southern China (full text via Europe PMC, PMC6374380), Scientific Reports, 2019
- Liu B.J. et al. Pollution characteristics of antimony, arsenic and mercury in human hair at Xikuangshan antimony mining area and Guiyang City, China. Huanjing Kexue (abstract via Europe PMC), Huanjing Kexue, 2009
- Xikuangshan Mine, Wikipedia, 2026
- 锡矿山, Wikipedia (zh), 2026
Draft compiled from public sources, not yet reviewed.