Heavy metals were found in soils from the four locations around Selelebi-Phikwe mine smelter. In figure 3, heavy metal concentration of Cu, Ni and Fe is higher at 2.5 km west of the mine smelter and it decreases exponentially with distance from the smelter towards the western side. They followed the order 2.5 km west> 20km west> 2.5 km east> 55 km west. Other elements however did not decrease exponentially with distance from the mine smelter as was the case with the ones mentioned above. This shows that the greatest pollution impact occurs towards the west in the direction of prevailing winds.