GEOL 400: FIELD EXERCISE: VISIT TO ROCK OUTCROPS OF THE BIRIMIAN AND SOME MINING CENTRES OF GHANA
NAME: AMOABENG BRIGHT STUDENT ID: 10274787 DATE: 28TH MARCH, 2012
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TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER
PAGE
2 3
3.1. WINNEBA 3.2 . MAAKOADZE 3.3. BUTRE 3.4. DIXCOVE 3.5 AXIM,ALONG THE SHORE 3.6. AXIM,CASTLE BEACH HOTEL 3.7 CAPE THREE POINT
CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX DISCUSSION CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE
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GOLDFIELDS GHANA LTD, DAMANG 9 ARTEESINAL MINING(GALAMSEY) 15 CONCLUSION FIGURES AND PICTURES17 REFERENCES 19 16 13
GEOL 400
This is a report of field exercises carried out by final year students of the Earth Science department, University of Ghana between the 18th and 22nd of January, 2012. Geology 400, Geological field exercise is a one credit, geological field-based course comprising a two part field trip to some Birimian exposures and associated Eburnean granitoids along the southern end of the Ashanti belt.The second part of the trip covers a visit to Goldfields Ghana Limited, Damang. The places we visited include Tarkwa, Mankoadze, Butre, Axim and Cape three point and their environs and we used equipment such as GPS, compass, hand lens, cameras and geological hammer.
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CHAPTER TWO
2.0. SUMMARY
Ghana falls mostly within the West African Craton which stabilized in the early Proterozoic (2000Ma) during theEburnean Orogeny. These early Proterozoic event comprise rocks of extensive belts of metamorphosed volcanic and sedimentary rocks exposed in Ghana and other parts of West Africa. These early Proterozoic terrane known as the Birimian System hosts most of the country's mineral deposits especially gold and diamond and occupies the southern,western and northernmost part of the country. The Birimian consists of metamorphosed volcanic and sedimentary rocks which form five sub parallel belts of volcanic rocks separated by broad basins of sedimentary rocks. The places we visited mainly form within the Ashanti belts. The Birimian is made up of two varieties. They are the tensional belt which alternate with compressional basin. The compressional basin is further made up of upper arenacious and lower argillaceous rocks. The tensional belt is also further divided into acid volcanic subseries, basic volcanic subseries and sedimentary volcanic subseries. There are intrusive materials within the basin and are called Cape Coast Granitoids and intrusive materials within the belt are called dixcove granitoids. Mineralization is mostly found in the greenstone belt within the contact between the metavolcanics and metasedimentary rocks. This is where most of the mining companies mine. Goldfields Ghana Limited, Damang operates an open pit mine within the Tarkwaian .The ore occurs as disseminated plaeo-placer type deposit locked up in the matrix of the banket conglomerates and the hydrothermal type deposit. The company recovers the ore chemically by heap leaching with cyanide and has environmental policies in place to ensure environmental restoration after mine closure. The various department of the company are the exploration department, mine geology department, plant or pit department and the metallurgy department.
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extend of the outcrop is 20m-30m. The outcrop is coarse grained and is massive and hence no attitudinal measurements were taken. The rock is a volcanic igneous rock. There are green minerals in some of the rocks indicating chlorotization as a result of reaction between chlorine and mafic minerals in the rock. Trend of outcrop;
3.1
Here we saw other host rocks belonging to the tensional belt and compressional basin. There is also a contact between the two types of rocks (fig 1.1).Mineralizations are located within these contacts. The granitoids here are part of the compressionl basin. The rocks here have different grain sizes and are meta- sedimentary alternating with metavolcanic. There are also greywackes here. The mineralogical composition of the rocks are feldspar and quartz with inhomogeneous grain sizes. Quartz veins are also present here. There are also metavolcanics rocks within the tensional belt here. There are various contact between the metavolcanics and metasedimentary(pegmatite) (fig1.1) here. The rocks here are light and dark coloured. There are pegmatite alternating with metavolcanics. There are coarse and fine grained rocks here as well.
3.2
The rocks here belong to the basic volcanic sub series. There are pyroclastic rocks with mafic color and containing minerals like amphibolites, greenschist and actinolite. Some part of the rocks here appears in the dixcove.
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There are massive joints in the rocks and the rocks are medium grained and are metamorphosed. There are also yellowish greywacke here. There are vesicular textures in the rocks indicating they are igneous rocks. There are also quartz veins in some of the rocks. Originally it was perceived that the metasediment are older than the metavolcanics but detailed studies have proved that the two types of rocks are contemporaneous. This is very evident at places where the types of rocks are lying adjacent to each other. At some places one lie on top of the other which is as a result of reverse fault and complex folding.
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The rocks are not foliated and are coarse grained with homogeneous grey colour. The rocks are massive as well and contain quartz veins. The mineralogical composition of the rocks are hornblende, sodium feldspar, muscovite and quartz. The rocks have joints which become very prominent moving down the sea.
3.5 AXIM BEHIND THE CASTLE ALONG THE SHORE (DAY THREE, STATION 1)
We are within the Ashanti belt were we have metasediments and metavolcanics. Belts are 100km wide and basins are 100km broad. This place falls within the southern branch of the Ashanti belts. There are different types of rocks here ranging from coarse grained rocks to medium grained rocks. We have medium grained rocks here which are have homogeneous grains and dark coloured. They contain minerals like biotite, muscovite, hornblende and pyrite. They have joints and are granular. They contain pyrite (fig 1.0) indicating gold mineralization. The gold here are termed lode gold as compare to theplacer gold in Takoradi. There are quartz veins here as well. The grain size of the rocks become coarser as we traversed westwards along the sea and they contain quartz (fig 1.0) and feldspar. The grain size of the rocks becomes small moving eastwards along the sea. They are basalts and the coarse grain rocks are gabbros. The basalt contains minerals like pyroxene and olivine. Behind the Axim castle along the shores three questions were asked. The questions and answers are as follows: 1)Write the names of all the rocks here. Answer: Meta-greywacke, Thioleiitic basalt, Meta-gabbro, Quartzite, Diorite 2) What are the structures here? Answer: Joints, Quartz veins, Vesicles 3) What are some of the minerals here?
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3.7
This is a town along the coast and co-ordinate from three towns, Takoradi, Tarkwa and Axim, hence the name. Rocks here are situated on the Ashanti belt. Rocks here have homogeneous mafic coloour and are coarse grained. The rocks contain plagioclase in a fine matrix therefore the rocks are plagioclase porphyry (fig 1.6) as compared to the quartz porphyry encountered earlier. The mineralogical compositions of the rocks are plagioclase, quartz and hornblende.The third type of meta-volcanic that is the sedimentary volcanic subseries can be found here. There are joints here. The surface of some the rocks are brown due to iron stains. There are no pyrite here.
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The main task of the exploration department is explore and locate mineralized zones. The lithological history in increasing order of age of the area is as follows: Huni sandstone Tarkwa Phyllite Banket series Kawere group Birimian basement These lithologies were then affected by folding and faulting which distorted the lithology of the area. Huni sandstone which is the uppermost Tarkwaian unit is fine grained monotonous sandstone. Tarkwa phyllite is fine grained and laminated and contains phyllite and chloritoid-bearing phyllitewith subsidiary arenaceous beds. Tarkwa phyllite contains reefs which hold paleoplacer mineralization. The reefs are quartzite pebbles and are divided into three sub-series namely: Golder, Morter and Star. Star is 1.5m thick and mostly quartz pebbles. Star is the best in terms of economic value followed by morter and subsequently Golder. The Banket series contain quartzites, grits, breccias and banket conglomerates. Club reefs are located in the banket conglomerate. It also contain quartz pebbles. Hydrothermal gold moneralisation are gotten from the club reefs. The Kawere group contains sandstones, quartzite, grit, breccias and conglomerate. The Kawere conglomerate here is somehow useless because contains no quartz pebbles hence no gold mineralization. The Kawere is overlain by, and is in marked contrast with,the Banket Series which consists of mature, clean, quartzite, grit, breccia and conglomeratecomposed in part of well sorted quartz pebble conglomerate beds. The Tarkwaian are directly on the Birimian basement lithologies. There is no mineralizations in the birimian here. Damang sit on an anticline and Damang Goldfields limited mine both hydrothermal and paleoplacer golds.Placer gold refers to alluvial or eluvial deposit of gravel containing gold. As
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such placer gold is gold that has weathered from the host rock where it was formed and been placed either on hillside(eluvial placer), stream bed or alluvial fans by the action of water, glaciers or other geological forces. Hydrothermal deposit form from hot, metal-rich fluids that are left during the late stages of the movement and cooling of magma. Smoky quartz veins are preferred veins for hydrothermal mineralization Features that help them find gold here are: Intersecting structures of two contrasting orientations(high angle intersection or better) Antiform closures Late porphyry intrusions Fault irregularity or jog Evidence of mineralization(Galamsey) Evidence of anomalism and soil geochemistry Magmatic signatures
MINE GEOLOGY They come in after exploration geologist are done with their work. They rely on the detailed exploration work by the exploration department. Damang is on Ashanti belt which strike North East- South West. Mineralisation in Damang occur in the Banket series and upwards but there is no mineralization in the kawere group. Intrusives such as dolerite sill was injected into the stratigraphy of the Tarkwaian followed by subsequent anticline folding. The mine geology department explore on the two types of mineralization which is hydrothermal and paleoplacer golda. The pathfinder for gold here are pyrite and quartz veins. The paleoplacer golds are hosted by various conglomeratic horizonsnin the Banket series. Gold occur in the free grains associated with heavy minerals like hematite. The various activities of the mine geology department are; Grade controlled drilling at operational pits Mining supervision of operational excavations
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Geological mapping or ore markups Optimizing ore extraction and minimizing ore dilution at all operational areas. Monitoring, recording and reporting ore waste movement. Undertake resource extensional drilling to delineate additional ore. Integral of production meetings leading to achieving production targets. Drill hole logging, sedimentological analyses leading to three dimensional modeling. Hydrothermal is structurally controlled and grid controlled drilling whiles paleoplacer is strata bound and chanelled sampling.
PLANT/PIT DEPARTMENT Blasting of rocks is done here. They also locate waste and ore point. Their work involves three main operations, namely Drill and blast Hold and haul Mill A picture of a pit at Goldfields Ghana Ltd, Damang is shown in fig 1.8
METALLURGY PROCESSING PLANT This is the final stage of gold production and where gold is extracted from the solid rock and processed. The first stage here is to break down rocks into smaller particles by blending and crushing with crushing circuit(primary crusher). The rock particles are further broken down with secondary crusher which crushes rocks of 150mm to 40mm into smaller particles. These broken down rocks are then stock piled in a storage area. Grinding is the second stage of extraction where rocks are pulverized. Oversized trommel(more than 80% of 60mm) is recycled by undergoing a further size reduction using the pebble crusher machine. The pebble crusher products are then returned to CV3 by means of conveyor and fed to the SAG mill.
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Limestones are then added to the materials to convert them into basic medium since it is not safe to work in the acidic medium. Cyanide which is a carrier of gold is then added to the grinded material to leach out gold. The leaching or adsorption equation is: 4Au+8CN+O2+2H2O 4Au(CN)2+4OH Carbon is then added to convert gold from the liquid phase to the solid phase. The carbon is charcoal made from coconut husk and absorbs gold. The waste after removing the gold is pumped into a tailing storage. Carbon absorb other impurities apart from gold. Some of these impurities are magnesium and calcium. The carbon is then soaked in hydrochloric acid which burns all other impurities and leaves the gold on the carbon. The gold is then stripped from the carbon using caustic soda and heating the carbon to 125:C. The next stage is the elution or desorption process which is done by the elution circuit. Here the gold is reduced to solution and themselves to cathode. The gold is then stripped from from the cathode and heated to liquid. The pure gold sit at the at the bottom since it is more dense with glassy substance at the top. The glass is broken and the pure gold bar obtained. Damang goldfields limited mine at a grade of 1.2g/t to 1.3g/t.
CHAPTER FIVE
ARTESINAL MINING (GALAMSEY) Artesinal mining also known as Galamsey in Ghana refers to small scale gold mining operations that mine and process ore with basic tools and equipments. One Galamsey operation facility at Nsuaem in Tarkwa was visited by students.
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GEOL 400 chamber or surrounding rocks as the magma upwelled. The granitoids are thus younger than the xenocryst which appears mafic and is possibly basalt. Stratigraphically the basalts at Butre are the lowest and form the base of the Upper Birimian Metavolcanics and they are overlain by the porphyritic basalts of Cape Three Points which are then overlain by the basalts observed at Axim. All the metavolcanics observed overlie the Lower Birimian metasediments which form the base of the supracrustal rocks.
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FIGURES
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Plagioclase and Phenocryst Fig. 1.6 Showing Granitoids of Cape 3 points (Plagioclase Porphyry)
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REFERENCES
Compton, R.R. (1962) Manual of Field Geology, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, New York, 378pp. Kesse, G.O. (1985) The Mineral and Rock Resources of Ghana, A.A Balkema, Rotterdam, 660pp. Lahee, F.H. (1941) Field Geology, Mc Graw-Hill Book Co. New York, 853pp. www.google.com accessed on 27th March, 2012 Wikipedia encyclopedia accessed on 27th March, 2012
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