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NIGERIAN GOLD DEPOSITS
OCCURRENCE
Gold in Nigeria is found in alluvial and eluvial placers and primary veins from several parts of
supracrustal (schist) belts in the northwest and southwest of Nigeria. The most important occurrences
are found in the Maru, Anka, Malele, Tsohon Birnin GwariKwaga, Gurmana, Bin Yauri, Okolom
Dogondaji and Iperindo areas, all associated with the schist belts of northwest and southwest Nigeria.
There are also a number of smaller occurrences beyond these major areas.
Officially recorded gold production in Nigeria started by 1913 and peaked in the period 19331943
when about 1.4t of gold were produced. The gold production declined during the Second World War
period and never recovered as mines were abandoned by mostly colonial companies. The Nigerian
Mining Corporation started exploration of gold in Nigeria in the early 1980s but failed to be sustained
due to lack of funds. The discovery of petroleum and its subsequent domination of the Nigerian
economy also contributed to the lack of attention to gold exploration despite the widespread
potentials.
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Officially recorded gold production started by 1913 and peaked in the period 19331943 when about
1.4t of gold were produced. The gold production declined during the Second World War period and
never recovered as mines were abandoned by mostly colonial companies. The Nigerian Mining
Corporation started exploration of gold in Nigeria in the early 1980s but failed to be sustained due to
lack of funds. The discovery of petroleum and its subsequent domination of the Nigerian economy
also contributed to the lack of attention to gold exploration despite the widespread potentials.
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GEOLOGICAL MAP OF NIGERIA SHOWING THE MAJOR AREAS OF GOLD
MINERALISATION
1 Maru 2 Anka 3 Malele 4 Tsohon Birnin Gwari 5 Kwaga 6 Bin Yauri 7 Gurmana
8 OkolomDogondaji 9 Iperindo
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The areas of gold occurrences in Nigeria.
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In the absence of any systematic exploration and development, the Nigerian goldfields have
experienced intense artisanal workings which target both the primary goldquartz reefs and their
associated alluvial occurrences (photos from the Tsohon Birnin Gwari area).
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3
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DEPOSIT DESCRIPTIONS
Maru (1)
Two old gold mines are the most important, and are all within the Maru schist belt. One (Duki Mine)
is hosted by a shear zone traversing a quartziteschist series, often exploiting the S1 schistosity planes.
The mineralization, apparently made up of en echelon goldquartz veins, was exploited by past miners
for over 1 km of strike length, leaving behind series of collapsed NS trending workings without any
surface exposures of the mineralization. Recent exploration drilling by the Nigerian Mining
Corporation have shown the continuity of the goldquartzsulphide veins below the old workings. The
other old gold mine (Maraba) is a two subparallel quartz vein (~ 300 m long) system hosted by
andalusitegraphitic schist in the aureole of a PanAfrican tonalite intrusion. Tourmaline and chlorite
in quartz floats and altered wall rocks are the only indicators of mineralization, as there are no in situ
exposures due to intensity of past mining. On remote imageries the two sites appear to be associated
with an anticlinal axis of tight folds trending in the NS direction.
Anka (2)
In this area, there are a number of old gold mines, such as Kwali, Jameson, Zuzzurfa and Kuba,
hosted by schists, phyllites and quartzites of the Anka schist belt. Gold mineralization in this area is
apparently related to subregional fault structures that are subsidiary to the transcurrent Anka fault
system. Individual veins or reefs seldom exceed 0.5 km of strike length as indicated by the extent of
past workings, and are concordant with the host rock foliation. In the Anka area there is a total lack
of exposure of the goldquartz veins or their altered wall rocks, except in the Zuzzurfa old mine,
where altered phyllites and quartzites are left behind by past miners. These mineralized wallrocks
show metal values in the following range: Cu = 6475410 ppm, Pb = 755022600 ppm, Ag = 1.58.6
ppm, and Au = 1236320 ppb.
Malele (3)
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The Malele area is in the extreme southern part of the Maru schist belt. Here, there are about four
subparallel NNEtrending en echelon goldquartz vein series cutting both biotitegneiss and chlorite
schist, now represented by a series of subparallel surface workings (pits, trenches and water ponds)
with the vein exposures seldom observed.. The mineralization was discovered in 1934 with the most
prominent of the veins being 1.5 m thick, 370 m long and a grade of about 30 ppm Au. The gold
bearing quartz veins appear to be parallel to foliation of the host rocks, apparently along a sub
regional fold axis. There are still widespread goldsulphide quartz floats from the past workings near
collapsed shafts.
Tsohon Birnin Gwari and Kwaga (4, 5)
The Tsohon Birnin Gwari and Kwaga gold sites are within the Kushaka schist belt of northwestern
Nigeria. While the Tsohon Birnin Gwari was an active gold mine in the 1930s where over 600
ounces of gold were produced, the Kwaga site is a recent discovery by artisanal miners following the
extensions of the Tsohon Birnin Gwari mine. Both sites are within a series of metasediments that lie in
a number of isoclinal fold structures trending NS and with a strong foliation parallel to the axial
planes of the folds. Goldbearing quartz bodies (en echelon veins, boudins and silicified phyllites) are
hosted by series of narrow shear zones, that developed along the main (S1) schistosity and anticlinal
axes of tightly folded carbonaceous (graphitic) phyllites. TheTsohon Birnin Gwari gold reef system is
about 7 km long, while the Kwaga reef system extends for about 3 km, and both structures are of
subregional extent disrupted and displaced by the Kalangai fault. Gold is mainly associated with
pyrite and minor sphalerite, chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite, galena and magnetite. The gangue is
predominantly quartz, but Kfeldspar and graphitic matter (from wall rocks) are also constituents.
Grades are very variable within the reef system and between oxide and sulphide ore zones, but
generally 5100 g/t Au are found. Recent core drilling and nearsurface mine exposures have provided
relatively fresh samples of the goldquartz reefs and their altered wall rocks from which the
geochemical characteristics of the Tsohon Birnin Gwari mineralization were studied.
Bin Yauri (6)
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Goldsulphidecarbonate quartz veins occur in a brittle fault zone cutting hornfels of the contact of a
PanAfrican granodiorite batholith intruding phyllites and tourmalinites of Zuru schist belt in
northwestern Nigeria. The brittle fault is a NWSE trending subsidiary structure of the transcurrent
Anka fault. Mineralization has been uncovered over a strike length of 1.5 km by past miners (1920s
1940s). Gold occurs associated with pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena, and minor sphalerite, magnetite and
bismuth telluride in a gangue of mainly quartz with some carbonates, sericite, chlorite and tourmaline.
The gold veins are surrounded by a narrow zone of hydrothermal alteration in which a chlorite
tourmalinepyritecarbonates association overprints a dominantly sericitic fabric of the hornfels wall
rocks. Past mine records, reconnaissance exploration and studies have shown gold grades in the range
515 ppm. The Bin Yauri mineralization have been inferred from structural relationships and wall rock
alteration to have postdated the main phase of the PanAfrican deformation, metamorphism and
intrusion of batholith, estimated to have occurred at around 500 Ma, during the waning stages of the
PanAfrican.
Gurmana (7)
The Gurmana area of gold mineralization is situated in the extreme southern part of the Kushaka
schist belt. Gold mineralization is in the form of quartzsulphide veins and stockworks hosted by
amphibolites and gneisses. The goldquartzsulphide veins are exposed by artisanal miners and seldom
extend more than a few tens of meters. Gold occurs with pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena, covelite and
chalcosite. The altered amphibolite wall rock also carries disseminations of pyrite, chalcopyrite and
galena.
OkolomDogondaji (8)
The OkolomDogondaji area of gold mineralization is in the EgbeIsanlu schist belt of southwestern
Nigeria, and the primary goldquartz veins and eluvial/alluvial placers have been mined extensively in
the period 1930s1950s. A series of goldquartz veins is hosted by NS and NNEtrending shear
zones, which cut gneisses, schists and amphibolites. The shear zones appear to have exploited the
main schistosity and anticlinal axes of tight isoclinal folds. The most prominent site is the Okolom old
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mine, which a goldsulphidequartz reef system with a total strike length of about 3 km hosted by
gneiss, amphibolite and talc schist. Other sites in the (Dogondaji) area have relatively smaller veins
hosted by amphibolites, gneisses, mica schists and phyllites. Gold is associated with pyrite, marcasite,
pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, argentite and galena, with a gangue of quartz, tourmaline, sericite and
chlorite. Silicification of the wall rocks is the main hydrothermal alteration type.
Iperindo (9)
The Iperindo old gold mine is in the Ilesha schist belt of southwestern Nigeria. The Ilesha belt is
bounded to the east by the Ifewara transcurrent fault system, which is a structural break between the
supracrustal belt and the older basement gneisses. The Iperindo mineralization comprises a series of
auriferous quartzcarbonate veins localized by a subsidiary fault within biotite gneiss and mica schist,
presently defined by subparallel old working extending overall for about 900m in a NNE direction.
Gold occurs with pyrite, pyrrhotite and minor chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite, magnetite and ilmenite.
Adjacent to the goldbearing veins the host granitegneiss has been hydrothermally altered to a
sericitechloriteepidote assemblage (with also hematite and pyrite). Gold emplacement at Iperindo
was inferred to be late PanAfrican on the basis of structural relationships, and the main control of
mineralization being the subsidiary fault zone which is parallel to the Ifewara transcurrent fault.
GEOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND OREFLUID ORIGIN
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which are likely due to the enhanced reducing conditions induced by the graphitic phyllite host rocks.
The few negative d 34 S values observed in the Iperindo and Malele sites are ascribed to probable effect
of meteoric water influx during or after the gold mineralization episode.
The nature of K, Rb and Ba enrichment in the Nigerian gold mineralization is distinctly unlike the
ratios observed in typical magmaticrelated ore deposits or those associated with massive basemetal
sulphide deposits of submarine hydrothermal origin. This has been used to preclude the dominant
involvement of magmatichydrothermal ore fluids as the source of the Nigerian goldmineralizing
fluids, even in sites such as the Bin Yauri with close proximity to granitic intrusion. The REE pattern
observed in all the Nigerian gold deposits so far studied is similar to postArchaean shales and unlike
that of calcalkaline granitoids, latestage magmatic pegmatites and hydrothermal veins or of sub
marine exhalative ore deposits. This is therefore, interpreted to mean derivation from metamorphic
hydrothermal fluids of upper crustal origin. The generally positive d 34 S values of the Nigerian gold
mineralization offer further support to the upper crustal sedimentary source of the ore fluids.
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The similarity of the possible fluid source in all the gold mineralization sites studied in the Nigerian
basement may be an indication of gold orefluids active on a regional scale. The structural settings
also suggest the emplacement of the gold mineralization to be late PanAfrican, subsequent to peak
regional metamorphism and granitoid intrusion. This was also a period (c. 500 Ma) characterized by
widespread uplift and brittle deformation which gave rise to the development of the regional fault
conjugate system that host the gold mineralization. The spatial relationship between the gold
mineralization and transcurrent fault systems that were possible PanAfrican crustal sutures suggests a
genetic link with collision tectonics. This appears to be applicable to mesothermal (orogenic) gold
deposits all over the world.
GENETIC MODEL AND IMPLICATION FOR EXPLORATION
The regional and local controls of the gold mineralization in the Nigerian PanAfrican basement are
primarily structural, consisting of transcurrent fault systems and subsidiary faults and other
penetrative structures, together forming the late PanAfrican conjugate fracture system. The regional
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faults were probably the main plumbing system from which the hydrothermal (metamorphic) gold ore
fluids were subsequently focused into the subsidiary fault and other structures, along which
interactions of the fluids with suitable wall rocks or structures caused gold deposition. A genetic
model is proposed in which PanAfrican “orogenic collapse” lead to the generation of large volumes
of hydrothermal fluids from crustal (sedimentary) rocks undergoing resurgent metamorphism. Such
fluids were capable of extracting gold and other solutes and species, depositing them as they moved
up through the developing conjugate fault systems. It has been observed that the regional
(trancurrent) fault structures are largely unmineralizaed because they were domains of greatest fluid
flow and highest fluid/rock ratios, whereas the genetically related subsidiary structures host the gold
deposits because of their decreased gold solubility and temperature.
The Nigerian gold mineralization is hosted by a diversity of rock types with superficially different
petrographic characteristics, a reason why earlier workers interpreted the origin in light of the petro
chemical characters of the host rocks and the correlation with common host rocks of gold in other
parts of the world. It is now understood that such visual variations between deposits or sites may not
reflect vastly different formational processes, but rather they may simply reflect interaction of broadly
similar goldbearing fluids with contrasting host rocks and structures. Exploration for gold deposits in
the Nigerian PanAfrican basement should therefore focus on identifying the appropriate structural
pattern and fluidrock interaction processes (hydrothermal alteration) required for the transport and
deposition of gold. This predictive search has the potential of uncovering unknown deposits and
extension of mineralization in known deposits and sites.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Garba, I., 1988. The variety and possible origin of the Nigerian gold mineralization: Okolom
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