Project Summary
 Significant
high grade Manganese resource defined
Apparent
hydrothermal replacement deposit within fault
Exploration
continues with drill programme
Existence
of required infrastructure will impact project economics favourably
General
Manganese is essential to iron and steel production by virtue
of its sulphur-fixing, deoxidizing, and alloying properties.
Steelmaking, including its iron-making component, has accounted
for most of the manganese demand. Among a variety of other
uses, manganese is a key component of widely used aluminium
alloys and is used in oxide form in dry cell batteries.
Following completion of the first phase of a programme of
geological fieldwork on the Chiwefwe manganese deposit near
Mkushi, an indicated resource has been defined following the
line of the geological boundary between the basement complex
rocks to the south and east and the Muva complex rocks to
the north and west. The Mkushi prospecting permit covers an
area of 400 hectares and also benefits from an established
infrastructure that includes major road and rail links.
Geology and Mineralization
Occupying most of central-eastern Zambia is the north-east
to south-west trending Irumide belt. It is Meso-Proterozoic
to Paleo-Proterozoic in age where the oldest rocks are those
of the Basement Supergroup and comprise the Mkushi Gneiss
Basement Complex toward the south-west and the Bangweulu Block
granites to the north-east Unconformably overlying this is
a sequence of meta-pelite and meta-quartzite sediments belonging
to the Muva Supergroup and are intercalated with acid volcanic
material.
Manganese mineralisation was probably allied to Proterozoic
volcanicity within the Zambia region 1300-1800 Ma enhancing
the net crustal content of manganese. Regional uplift and
Post-Proterozoic erosional processes then redistributed and
concentrated the manganese metal to create both the stratabound
occurrences and vein type deposits. Such supergene processes
are thought to have occurred in the early Cretaceous following
the break up of Gondwanaland and various regional uplift cycles
in Africa.
Initial mapping and drilling of test pits indicate a potential
yield of 2,360,000 tonnes of manganese ore. The manganese
ore is from good clean quality material mainly in the form
of manganite with a Mn content of over 46%.
Further work including the drilling of ten or more holes will
now at once take place with the objectives of raising the
south western area to measured category and defining depth,
and of establishing indicated and inferred resources in the
six kilometre northeast extension. Sampling results are expected
to become available in the course of August 2006.
History
A significant high grade manganese deposit first located in
1931-1932 was examined in the Mwendafye Hills area of Central
Zambia. The manganese deposit was traced along the northerly
margin of a small granitic intrusive body 0.5 to 1.0 km wide
striking in an easterly-northeasterly direction. The manganese
is traceable on the northerly dip slope margin of the granitic
intrusive body for a distance of 4 km. The manganese is traceable
in outcrops up to 10 meters in thickness, in old production
pits, in float talus boulders, and in fine grained manganese
particles and black manganese soils over a strike length of
7.3 km. Small scale hand mining produced a recorded 80,000
tonnes of 50% Mn between 1954 and 1962 from one pit location
in a toe of the slope area.
A recent 10 kg composite sample of manganese ore returned
analytical values of 52% Mn. Another oxidized manganese sample
returned values of 43.7% in ICP analysis.
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