The determination of activity concentrations of radionuclides requires a reliable gamma spectrometry system, which also depends on the compulsory attainment of secular equilibrium amongst the progenies of the radionuclide of interest. This is often difficult to attain and hence a helium particle induced x-ray emission technique, not requiring the compulsory attainment of secular equilibrium, was used to determine the actual concentrations of the elemental content of tailings from the high background radiation tin mining area, Jos, Nigeria. The activity concentrations of the radionuclides of (40)K, (232)Th and (238)U were also calculated based on their elemental analyses, providing reliable information about the heads of uranium ((238)U) and thorium ((232)Th) series on the study area.