This paper provides an overview of the physical and chemical landscape changes that have occurred at four reference sites due to historical mining and smelting activities within Slovenia, and their comparison with similar sites around the World. Literature review has been made with the intention to identify major pollutant sources, its dispersion control factors, and effects. The four reference sites are Idrija, with more than 500‐year Hg mining and ore smelting history, the Meža Valley, also with a 500‐year PbZn mining and smelting history, the Celje area where Zn was smelted for 100 years and the Drava River alluvial plain, which is contaminated because of historical PbZn mining upstream. Based on the comparison between the four abovementioned reference sites and similar sites around the world that are situated in different landscapes and climates, we identified major sources of contamination, which are the erosion of mine and ore processing wastes, and atmospheric emissions of metal‐containing particles from smelters. In the first case, major control factors are rainfall pattern and river gradient, controlling erosion and sediment deposition patterns. In the second case, the prevailing control factors are topography and the dominant wind directions.

The aim of this study is to present a spatial distribution of As, Sb, and Tl in topsoil and subsoil in the Kavadarci region, Republic of Macedonia. In total, 344 soil samples were collected from 172 locations (0–5 cm and 20–30 cm) in an area of 360 km². ICP-MS was applied for the determination of the invesgated elements. It was found that the highest contents of As, Sb, and Tl were on Holocene alluvium of the river Crna Reka, where average concentrations exceeded the average of the total investigated area by two times for As, three for Tl, and more than five times for Sb. The enrichment of the Holocene alluvium of the river Crna Reka is supposed to be a consequence of natural erosion from Allchar mine deposits on Kožuf Mountain and also from mining activities in the past.

The results of the systematic study of the spatial distribution of trace metals in surface soil over the Bitola region, Republic of Macedonia, known for its coal mine and thermo-electrical power plant activities are reported. The investigated region (3200 km²) is covered by a sparse sampling grid of 5 × 5 km, but in the urban zone and around the thermoelectric power plant the sampling grid is denser (1 × 1 km). In total, 229 soil samples from 149 locations were collected including top-soil (0–5 cm) and bottom-soil samples (20–30 cm and 0–30 cm). Inductively coupled plasma – atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) was applied for the determinations of 21 elements (Al, As, B, Ba, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, P, Pb, Sr, V and Zn). Based on the results of factor analyses, three geogenic associations of elements have been defined: F1 (Fe, Ni, V, Co, Cr, Mn and Li), F2 (Zn, B, Cu, Cd, Na and K) and F3 (Ca, Sr, Mg, Ba and Al). Even typical trace metals such as As, Cd, Cu, Ni, P, Pb and Zn are not isolated into anthropogenic geochemical associations by multivariate statistical methods still show some trends of local anthropogenic enrichment. The distribution maps for each analyzed element is showing the higher content of these elements in soil samples collected around the thermoelectric power plants than their average content for the soil samples collected from the whole Bitola Region. It was found that this enrichment is a result of the pollution by fly ash from coal burning which deposited near the plant having a high content of these elements.