Atmospheric Particulate Matter around Phosphate Mining Basin

This book is an important scientific document that present chemical and mineralogical characterization of whole particulate matter (PM) in the vicinity of a mining basin. Gafsa is the study region, we have combined several techniques to deliver a mapping of the dust pollution in this region. Passive monitoring or sampling is used to determine the pollutant distribution over a large area, and to assess integrated concentration levels over long periods of time. In this study we have also, shown that Particulate matter (PM) is a chemically non-specific pollutant. It may originate from different emission source types. In order to identify the sources of the particles, we resorted to Principal component analysis and cluster analysis, coupled with a correlation coefficient analysis. The results from multivariate statistic approaches have enabled us to characterize and apportion particulate matter emitted by 3 sources, crustal dust, industrial and traffic.