Rescaled-Range (R/S) Analysis of Time Series of Heavy Metal Pollution in Iron Sulfide Mining Area

Studies of heavy metal pollution in mining areas mainly focus on non-dynamic and investigative aspects, but the forecasting of heavy metal migration and conversion is seldom considered in the contexts of both time structure and space structure. In this paper, with the concept of rescaled-range (R/S) analysis of fractal theory, the data of heavy metal copper (Cu) pollution in a certain iron sulfide mining area from 2005 to 2007 is calculated and analyzed, the Hurst exponents of which are all larger than 0.5. The results show that the trend of heavy metal Cu pollution in the mining area is obviously relevant and of long duration. At the same time, the levels of duration in decreasing order are respectively in 0 meter, 1,000 meter and 9,000 meter. With R/S analysis, a new method is provided for long-term forecasting of the changing trend of heavy metal Cu pollution in mining areas.