Characterisation of copper minerals in the Kanzugo area of the Mozambique mobile belt

Abstract

Copper is a base metal and it is the third most recycled metal after iron and aluminum. Copper staining has been recorded in Kanzugo area which lies in the northern parts of Kitui County. From previous investigations, it has been reported that copper disseminations are the cause of the green malachite and blue azurite stains that are found in the gneisses in the study area. The type of copper occurring in the area are azurite (2CuCO3•Cu (OH) 2), malachite (CuCO3•Cu (OH) 2), and bornite 2Cu2S•CuS•FeS. Mobility of copper in oxide compounds in this area is high from geochemical surveys, thus it makes strata bound copper deposits best explored using geochemical methods as preliminary indicators as opposed to other methods such as geophysics. Kanzugo area lie in the Kitui-Mwingi of Mozambique belt which is predominantly covered by rocks of the basement system and is formed by dissection of submiocene and end cretaceous peneplains .exposed rocks consists of horizontally tertiary lavas and pyroclastics and sediments in the west underlain by the folded basement system of gneisses to the east together with the highly weathered schists. The basement system rocks are metamorphic and have been granitized to a considerable degree in some places. In the study area copper Mineralization occurs at scattered localities ranging over a width of about seven kilometers and trending from southwest to northeast. Several granitoid ribs with steep westerly dip show copper mineralization. Channel samples from the study area assayed 3 – 8 % copper. Discussed within is a simple way of representing threshold analytical results from a simply a line graph. Quality control measures were implemented during the initial collection samples in the area to ensure reliability of collected data and estimation levels are up to standards. Recommendations are made for further work to be carried out to assess the significance of these new targets and to locate their bedrock source(s). To maximize effectiveness, this work should be multi-disciplinary in approach and include soil and stream sediments sampling and bedrock geological mapping in the vicinity, of the samples that define these new rock chip geochemical exploration targets