Status message

Locating you...

Atlas

Charleswood Diamonds

Following discovery of alluvial gold at Tarka Forest in 2004 and subsequent acquisition of a Special Grant over the area by the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation, a lot of interest was roused on the gold potential of the Chimanimani area. This resulted in DTZ-Ozgeo, a company specialised in alluvial minerals, securing a Special Grant (SG 4955) in 2007 to explore for gold in an area encompassing Charleswood Farm adjacent to Tarka Forest, about 15 km east of Chimanimani.

Submitted by Andrew du Toit on Tue, 04/11/2014 - 09:44 | Last updated: Tue, 04/11/2014 - 09:46

Kariba biotite gneiss overlain by basal red mudstone of the Lower Karoo Group

Kariba biotite gneiss at the Nyanyana bridge foundation overlain by basal red mudstone of the Lower Karoo Group.

The Nyanyana River bridge, crossed just prior to passing the turnoff to Kariba Airport, is founded on strongly foliated and folded biotite gneiss. The basal unit to the Karoo Supergroup, as in adjacent parts of Zambia, is a red mudstone with basal conglomerate in places.

Submitted by Andrew du Toit on Tue, 24/11/2015 - 10:30 | Last updated: Tue, 24/11/2015 - 10:30

Palaeoproterozoic (ca. 2.03 Ga) granitoid intrusive into the Malaputese Group

This is a K-feldsparphyric porphyritic granite, cut by aplitic dykes. It has a weak fabric. It has yielded a simple population of zircons which give an age of 2.03 Ga (Master et al., 2013a,b)

Submitted by Andrew du Toit on Wed, 15/10/2014 - 13:42 | Last updated: Wed, 29/10/2014 - 11:10

Marange Diamonds

De Beers discovered the Marange fossil placer diamond deposit in 2003 during the tenure of their exploration licence (EPO 1523) covering the Marange area. The exploration was targeted at discovering kimberlitic diamonds, but the recovery of rounded diamonds in some heavy mineral samples collected from local streams led to suspicions of a secondary source for the diamonds. A search for the possible source led to the discovery of a mineralized conglomerate.

The discovery attracted informal miners from all over the country and abroad.

Submitted by Andrew du Toit on Tue, 04/11/2014 - 09:52 | Last updated: Tue, 04/11/2014 - 10:04

Kariba porphyritic biotite granitoid gneiss

The Kariba porphyritic biotite granitoid gneiss is coarse-grained, with a weak gneissic fabric, and contains large K-feldspar phenocrysts, and numerous decimetric slab-like mafic xenoliths. It contains small garnets rimmed and replaced by biotite. The zircons dated have oscillatory zoning in the centre (of igneous origin), but the margins have been affected by metasomatic alteration zones, and in some cases have discrete overgrowth rims. The zircons have yielded ages of 1962.9 ± 8.5 Ma and 2.1-2.17 Ga.

Submitted by Andrew du Toit on Tue, 24/11/2015 - 10:34 | Last updated: Tue, 24/11/2015 - 10:34

Palaeoproterozoic (ca 2.07 Ga) granitoid , with complex (inherited) 3.4 and 2.7 Ga zircons

In this outcrop, there is a deformed granite with anastomosing subhorizontal fractures, which is weathered with brownish iron oxide staining. It has yielded a very complex set of zircons, with inherited cores as old as 3.4 Ga, with 2.7 Ga overgrowths, and a final overgrowth at 2.07 Ga, which is possibly the age of intrusion of the granite, which was subsequently deformed (Master et al., 2013a,b).

Submitted by Andrew du Toit on Wed, 15/10/2014 - 13:46 | Last updated: Wed, 29/10/2014 - 11:58

Manjeri Formation Type Section

This exposure is described in detail by Martin (1978) and Bickle et al. (1975) and only a summary is given here.

The sedimentary succession here is 130m thick with the lower part dominated by argillite and quartzite and ironstone and the other 80m by siltstone and argillite.

Submitted by Andrew du Toit on Thu, 06/11/2014 - 09:30 | Last updated: Thu, 06/11/2014 - 10:34

Kariba sillimanite quartzite Kariba Heights

The Kariba sillimanite quartzite Kariba Heights, Sample ZMB13/11 is an aluminous quartzite consisting mainly of quartz and sillimanite. The zircons have yielded concordant ages of 2.018 Ga, 2.172, 2.220 and 2.70 Ga (Master et al., 2015). The maximum age of the quartzite is 2.018 Ga, the age of the youngest concordant detrital zircon, while the other zircons reflect a provenance from older crust dated at 2.17, 2.22, and 2.70 Ga.

Submitted by Andrew du Toit on Tue, 24/11/2015 - 10:38 | Last updated: Tue, 24/11/2015 - 10:38

Pink paragneiss (meta-arkose) of the Malaputese Group

At this outcrop locality, about 10 km further NW from the previous stop, there are numerous roadside outcrops of strongly recrystallized pink paragneiss of the Malaputese Group. The gneisses are interpreted as meta-arkoses, and some show relict cross bedding. They have yielded a detrital zircon population that ranges in age from 2254 ± 18 to 2796 ± 17 Ma, with a strong age peak at ca. 2.7 Ga (Master et al., 2013a,b).

Submitted by Andrew du Toit on Wed, 15/10/2014 - 13:49 | Last updated: Tue, 04/11/2014 - 10:56

Reliance Formation Type Section

The petrography of the Type Section rocks (Martin 1978) and their chemistry (Nisbet et al., 1977) are described elsewhere and detailed information on some of the more magnesian rocks are given by Nisbet et al (1987).

Submitted by Andrew du Toit on Thu, 06/11/2014 - 09:55 | Last updated: Thu, 06/11/2014 - 09:56

Want to Contribute to the Atlas?