International Journal of Civil & Environmental Engineering IJCEE-IJENS Vol: 12 No: 01

Biogeochemistry exploration for iron mineralization in tropical

areas, Lampung-Indonesia using Coffea arabica
Erik Prasetyo*, Fika R. Mufakhir, Kalzani Jafri, Karna, Ulin Herlina, Nurbaiti M. Prilitasari
Indonesian Institute of Sciences
Jl. Ir. Sutami km. 15 Tanjung Bintang
Bandar Lampung 35361, Indonesia
*correspondence author erik005@lipi.go.id; erik_exploreur@yahoo.com

Abstract Tropical climate gives rise to

difficulties in metal deposit prospecting. They
include the high rate of weathering process
which severely conceals the existence of
mineral deposit beneath (blind ore). In this
case it is hypothesized that plants could be
served as superior indicator of mineral deposit
occurence compared to other sampling media
e. g. soil. Therefore, in this paper the viability
of biogeochemistry method to pinpoint the
iron deposit occurence would be assessed
after comparison with traditional geochemical
soil sampling method. The study was carried
out in Lumbok Seminong, West Lampung. In
biogeochemical exploration to locate iron
mineralization, the species Coffea arabica
(coffee) would be tested as indicator due to its
abundance and wide distribution. The results
showed that the species could be used as
indicator and served as alternative method to
pinpoint the location of primary iron
mineralization.
Keywords: biogeochemistry, iron deposit,
Coffea arabica, Lampung
1. Introduction
Indonesia is well known to possess a variety of
mineral resources. Geologically this is due to
the position of Indonesian archipelago within
an active Cenozoic magmatic arc with a length
of about 9000 km, where the most of the
segments ( 80%) have been known to contain
mineral deposits [1]. The mineral resources
have significance contrubution to Indonesian
GDP (10.2 % in 2008, 9.1 % in 2007, and 10 %
in 2006). However, for iron and steel
commodities, Indonesia is still categorized as
an importing country, which 8.4 % (now still
counting) of import value was allocated to
purchase both type of products [23]. To solve

this drawback, the exploration and inventory

program for iron ore deposit are now highly
encouraged in Indonesia.
Exploration program to investigate the
presence of mineral deposit in certain location
generally begins with reconnaissance stage. In
this stage the method applied could be varied.
The most frequently used is geochemical
prospecting to pinpoint the sub-area which is
more promising for follow up stages. To date,
geochmical prospecting is still focused on
traditional sampling programs e. g. heavy
mineral, stream sediment and soil. These
programs are carried out based on the fact
that metals as elements could be dispersed by
chemical and physical weathering. However
these sampling programs have limitations in
terms of complicated procedure in sample
collection and preparation and expensive
analytical technique [4].
One of other sampling program could be
served as alternative to traditional
geochemical methods is biogeochemistry. In
simple terms this method is based on the fact
that plants could accumulate metallic
elements in high level in their tissues
(phytoaccumulation) [511]. These plants are
known as hyperaccumulator due to the high
content of these metallic elements which exist
outside the range of normal levels required by
metabolism process. Further, this principle
could be exploited to delineate the prospect
area in mineral exploration program. So far,
the technique has been proven to be effective
for mineral prospecting in subtropical zones e.
g. Rusia and eastern Europe [1113] and dry
climate e. g. Australia [10]. Therefore, in this
paper the viability of biogeochemistry method
to pinpoint the iron deposit occurence in

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International Journal of Civil & Environmental Engineering IJCEE-IJENS Vol: 12 No: 01

tropical area would be assessed after

comparison with traditional geochemical soil
sampling method.

2. Biogeochemical exploration in tropical

regions
Tropical climate gives rise to difficulties in
metal deposit prospecting which include high
rate of weathering process. It produces layer
of soil which is thick enough to conceal the
existence of mineral deposit beneath (blind
ore). In this case it is hypothesized that plants
could be served as superior indicator of
mineral deposit occurence compared to other
sampling media e. g. soil. This is due to its root
penetration which could reach deeper
weathering zone. Several studies showed that
the concentration of metal in plant tissues
correlated positively with the concentration
of the same elements in substrate where the
plants grew [6, 8, 14]. Unfortunately, the plant
species listed as potential indicators for metal
deposits in tropical region are quite scarce and
most of them only deal with lateritic nickel
deposits. Reeves [15] mentioned at least fifty
plant species as nickel indicators which were
collected from sites associated with lateritic
nickel deposit in tropics e. g. New Caledonia,
Celebes, Queensland, Cuba, Puerto Rico and
Dominican Rep. However, Reeves also
mentioned that the plants listed in the paper
were generally vascular plants and quite rarely
found in locations. This also led to the problem
in geochemical exploration in terms of ideal
spacing and number of sample collected.

Geologically, the studied area is situated in

western part of Sumatera which is part of
Sunda-Banda arc. This Neogene arc has two
type of basement: island arc and continental
which streches for 3,700 km from north of
Sumatera to Damar island in Maluku.
Generally the rocks in this arc were associated
with calc-alkali andesitic vulcanism which in
turn produced mineral deposits such as
Pongkor (West Java), Batu Hijau (Sumbawa)
and majority of epithermal gold deposits and
base metal deposits along western part of
Sumatera [1]. Rock series in studied area
regionally could be classified into several unit
or rock formations (from younger to older):
tuff volcanic breccia (Qhv), andesite-basalt
volcanic rock (Qv), Ranau formation (Qtr), Bal
formation (Tmba) and Hulusimpang formation
(Tomh). Ranau formation consist of rhyolitic
tuff, pumiceous tuff, welded tuff with
intercalation of carbonaceous claystone. Bal
formation consists of dacitic volcanic breccia
with volcanic sandstone intercalation.
Hulusimpang formation consists of altered
andesitic to basaltic lava, volcanic breccia and
tuff, and contains sulfide mineralisation and
quartz veins. Mineral deposit in this area are
generally associated with Hulusimpang
formation
[17].
Indication
of
iron
mineralization in location was marked by float
discovery which contained iron ore mineral
disseminated in milky quartz (Figure 2).
Polished section showed that ore minerals to
be dominated by pyrite and magnetite (Figure
2).

3. Studied area
The study was carried out in Lumbok
Seminong, West Lampung, (Figure 1) southern
part of Sumatera which is situated in tropical
zone. The area consists of rain forest which
part of it had been converted into plantations
and farms. The type of rainforest found in the
location is lowland equatorial evergreen
rainforest or tropical rainforest which annual
rainfall could exceeds 2000 mm [16]. The
elevation in location varied between 750
1200 from sea level. The terrain could be
devided into plain with slope less than 10 deg.
and steep hills with slope more than 30 deg.

4. Methods
In biogeochemistry exploration to locate iron
mineralization, the species Coffea arabica
(coffee) would be tested as indicator. The
species was considered as potential indicator
due to its wide distribution. Besides, the
species is abundant in the location and easily
identified. Coffee is pan tropically distributed
due to its economic value. The wide
distribution and abundance of coffee would be
an advantage since the species could dealt
with the major problems in biogeochemistry i.
e. minimum number of sample collected and
sample spacing.

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International Journal of Civil & Environmental Engineering IJCEE-IJENS Vol: 12 No: 01

In the sampling program, each sample set

which consists of soil, leaves and bark of
coffee was obtained from the same spot. Soil
sample was taken from the depth 20 cm as
much as 500 gr. Soil sample generally
consisted of brownish-black clay particle with
little sand and granule. Bark sample consisted
of 100 gram epidermis of trunk was obtained

by scraping the trunk with minimum diameter

of 5 cm in the spot with minimum height of 50
cm from ground surface. Leaves was taken
randomly as much as 100 gr, equivalent to 20
leaves, in order to represent the whole plant
canopy.

Figure 1. Index map of studied area (location) in south-western part of Sumatera, thick lines denotes
the Sunda-Banda arc (left). Regional geological map of studied area, symbol of rock unit or formations
as cited in the text (Chapter 3) which the coordinate using UTM in thousand (right).

Figure 2. Float contained oxide and sulphide ore minerals discovered in studied area (left). Polished
section of float found in location showing ore mineral pyrite (yellow) intergrowth with magnetite
laths (bluish-light grey, bottom right) in quartz (dark grey, upper left), red scale in bottom right corner
is 100 m (right).
Sample preparation began by drying process in
120C for one hour. The element content in
sample would be stated using this dry basis. In
destruction process, 0.1 gr of soil sample with
particle size less than 100 mesh was digested
using mixture of concentrated hydrochloric
acid, nitric acid and sulfuric acid to release its
metal content. The digestion result then was

diluted using deionized water and filtered

using Whatman 41 filter paper to produce
filtrate used for further analysis.
Leaves and bark sample after drying were
ashed using muffle furnace in temperature
500C for 2 hours to preconcentrate its metal
content. The ash then digested using mixture

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International Journal of Civil & Environmental Engineering IJCEE-IJENS Vol: 12 No: 01

of concentrated acid as in soil sample

digestion. The result was
diluted using
deionized water and filtered using Whatman
41 filter paper to produce filtrate for further
analysis. In the biogeochemistry exploration,
Fe in the samples as target element would be
determined using spectrophotometric method
which procedure refered to Marczenko and
Balcerzak [18].
5. Results and discussions
Desciptive statistic of Fe content in soil, leaves
and bark was given in Table 1. Based on the
skewness value, Fe distribution in leaves and
bark are lognormal while Fe in soil tend to be
normally distributed which are also shown in
histograms (Figure 3). Based on coefficient of
variation value which is more than 1.0, Fe
content in bark quite varies. This highest
variation of bark compared to leaves and soil
is probably due to the variation of trunk
diameter or age in sampling program. It could

be generalized that bigger or older trunk

would accumulate more metal elements than
smaller or younger trunk due to its longer
lifespan [19]. Fe content in leaves is less varied
due to the less varied and shorter lifespan. The
relatively low variation of Fe content in soil
samples was probably caused by homogenity
of rock type in studied area.
Due to lognormal distribution of Fe content,
correlation analysis was then carried out using
log-transformed data as recommended by
Brooks [20]. The correlation analysis (Figure 4)
showed that Fe content in bark correlated
positively with the Fe content in soil (r = 0.42)
as well as fe content in leaves with fe content
in soil (r = 0.51). Statistical test to determine
how significant the correlations was executed
using t-test. The test showed that the
probability of correlation between Fe content
in leaves soil and bark soil was not existed
was less than 1 %.

Table 1. Descriptive statistics of Fe content in bark, leaves and soil samples.

Parameter
Count
Mean
Minimum
Maximum
Median
Standard Deviation
Coef. Variation
Skewness

Fe bark (ppm)
129
161,595
2,041
1014,357
105,417
166,295
1,029
2,150

Fe leaves (ppm)
129
28,218
0,000
143,098
22,193
26,051
0,923
1,622

Fe soil (permil)
129
27,820
0,108
89,348
29,127
12,947
0,465
0,644

Figure 3. Histogram of Fe content in bark, leaves and soil samples.

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Figure 4. Logaritmic plot of Fe content in bark and leaves of Coffea arabica with Fe content in soil.
Statistical test indicates that 99% probability exists that relationship between both Fe content in bark
and leaves with Fe in soil in which the tree grows.

Biogeochemistry
contour
map
was
constructed to observe the distribution of
anomalous region in studied area (Figure 5).
Based on analysis on cummulative frequency
of Fe content in soil sample it could be
differentiated between background and
anomalous by treshold value 32.5 permil Fe.
The analysis could not be executed for bark
and leaves samples since the cummulative
frequency could not distinguish between
background and
anomalous value. The
treshold value for two populations was then
determined using mode value of Fe in the
range of anomalous value of soil data
population [21]. The modes are 60 ppm and
40 ppm for Fe content in bark and leaves
respectively.
Based on the map, the overlapped anomalous
region was most frequently occured between
bark and leaves, followed by leaves soil
overlapping. The least overlapping occured
between bark and soil which was conformed
with its least correlation coefficient value.
Overlapping among the three occured in the
central part of studied area covering 100 x 50
m area. Other overlappings also occured in
north side of studied area. The overlappings
between bark and leaves were slightly shifted
from soil anomalous region. The shifting was
probably caused by secondary dispersion due

to soil creep, considering the slope in the area

which could exceed 30 degrees. The creep
could shifted the element dispersion produced
by weathering process so that the anomaly
distribution was not located exactly on the top
of ore body. The map also showed the
elongated and circular geometry and relatively
small dimension of anomalous region which
could be interpreted as veined or piped ore
body. Therefore, the follow-up program in the
next stage of exploration program could be
focused on the area with overlapping
anomalies.
Based on coefficient of correlation and
anomalous Fe distribution map it could
inferred that biogeochemical exploration for
Fe deposits using Coffea arabica as indicator
could be served as alternative to the
traditional geochemical exploration to
pinpoint the location of primary Fe
mineralization. Even it is arguable that
biogeochemistry is more effective in terms of
cost and time consumed, especially for the
tropical regions. The field work showed that
only one minute was required to obtain leaves
sample and two minutes for bark sample. Soil
sample generally took ten minutes to obtain
from 20 cm depth while greater depth would
require more time and cost. In terms of
equipment used, leaves and bark sampling did

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Figure 5. Distribution of anomalous Fe content in Coffea arabica bark and leaves compared with Fe
content in soils, local coordinates.

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International Journal of Civil & Environmental Engineering IJCEE-IJENS Vol: 12 No: 01

not involve special tools even the leaves

sampling did not require any apparatus since
the high of the tree canopy hardly exceeded 3
m. Considering the transportation, leaves and
bark samples command less storage volume
and weight compared to soil samples. Besides,
the less weight or volume of biogeochemical
sample means that the sampling program
could be executed by less personnels and
could cover wider areas due to higher
mobility. In sample preparation, leaves and
bark sample required only less than four hours
to produce sample ready for analysis while soil
samples required at least four days to prepare.
Most of the time was consumed for digestion
process.
In the field it was observed that root
penetration of Coffea arabica could reach
more than 3 m deep while laterally the root
was distributed to more than 2 m. Therefore,
it could be said that biogeochemical sample
represents greater volume than soil sample
does. This could be advantage in terms to
reduce the nugget effect which normally
occured in geochemical exploration [21].
As an alternative method in geochemical
exploration, biogeochemical prospection could
not entirely substitute the traditional
geochemical exploration especially in advance
stage. However, biogeochemical prospection
could effectively be used to pinpoint the areas
which were more viable to develop. This
would greatly save time and cost especially in
prospect delineation in broad areas.
6. Conclusions
Significant correlation coefficient between Fe
content in bark of Coffea arabica with soil and
Fe content in leaves of Coffea arabica with soil
inferred that biogeochemical exploration using
bark and leaves of Coffea arabica could be
served as alternative method to delineate the
prospect of primary Fe mineralization in
tropical region. This method has advantages in
terms of cost and time consumed compared to
traditional soil sampling. This is in line with the
result in biogeochemical contour map in
locating anomalous Fe area which then could
be interpreted as prospect area. Based on
higher coefficient correlation of Fe content

leaves-soil, it is advisable to use leaves as

sample media since Fe content in leaves is less
sensitive to the age of the tree than Fe
content in bark and further it could reduce the
nugget effect. If the age or tree lifespan
factor is negligible then only Fe content in soil
is considered to affect the Fe content in the
biogeochemical sample.
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