It may be hard to make a reasonable assessment on the combined pollution risk of heavy metals in the sulfide tailings merely by using a single methodhansi-font-family: ’times new roman’">(e.g.Nemerom indexhansi-font-family: ’times new roman’">)based on element total content.This paper carries out the comprehensive assessment of the combined pollution risk of Pb,Zn,Cd and As in the sulfide tailings in a minehansi-font-family: ’times new roman’">(northern Guangxi,Chinahansi-font-family: ’times new roman’">),integrating methods such as the geological accumulative index,the potential ecological risk evaluation,and BCR acid extraction procedure.The reference value is taken from the element abundance of the weathering crust of carbonate country rock nearby LTS ore body in the mine.The results display thathansi-font-family: ’times new roman’">:(1hansi-font-family: ’times new roman’">)Cadmiumhansi-font-family: ’times new roman’">(strongest ecological risk and mobility in the four elementshansi-font-family: ’times new roman’">)and Arsenichansi-font-family: ’times new roman’">(highest pollution level and stronger ecological riskhansi-font-family: ’times new roman’">)are major pollution factors in the mine,and should be prevented and controlled;while Zinchansi-font-family: ’times new roman’">(weak ecological riskhansi-font-family: ’times new roman’">),and Pbhansi-font-family: ’times new roman’">(low pollution level,weak ecological risk and mobilityhansi-font-family: ’times new roman’">) may be relatively minor.hansi-font-family: ’times new roman’">(2hansi-font-family: ’times new roman’">)The elements active-acid-extractable content,which is one of the main causes inducing environment damages,correlates variously or inconsistently with its total content.That may be one reason for the problems existing in the assessment methods only based on the factor of element total content.