Physicochemical characterization and pollution evaluation were performed on six gold mining sites at the locality of Bétaré-Oya in Cameroon. Twelve samples of twenty two sampled show contamination with arsenic, nickel and lead. Granulometric analysis performed on all samples show a predominance of coarse particle (>250 μm) and PH varying from 5.4 to 7. The pollution index and pollution load index show that primary gold exploitation site of Mbal, Nakayo and Kpawara are contaminated. The highest pollution index is recorded on releases from the primary gold mining sites of Mbal, Kpawara and Nyondéré, which means that one must have a watchful eye to the discharges produced by primary gold mining. Sorting the samples in descending order of pollution index yields: Mb3 > Kp1 > Kp2 > Mb2 > Mb1 > Mb4 > Kp3 > Na5; meaning that special emphasis should be placed on the monitoring of wash sludge such as those from the Mbal site (Mb3), where pollution index is equal to 36.29, as well as washed and waste rock.
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