Discovery, geology and genesis of copper—cobalt mineralisation at Chambishi Southeast prospect, Zambia

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Abstract

Grid drilling on a broad grid, stepping out down-dip from subcropping Lower Roan has made an important intersection of 10.7 m of copper—cobalt mineralisation. This adds significant tonnage to the 55 Mt grading 2.4% Cu already known at Chambishi Southeast. The host rock is the Lower Roan ore shale surrounding a dolomite biotherm which caps a basement palaeohigh. Mineralisation consists of chalcopyrite with minor bornite, carrollite, cobaltiferous pentlandite and linnaeite, disseminated along bedding planes in the shale as well as in an underlying channel sandstone. Moving away from the palaeohigh, pyrrhotite and pyrite surround the ore, giving a distinct mineral zoning with carrollite hugging the palaeohigh. Gangue minerals are quartz, feldspar, mica, carbonate and tourmaline. The palaeogeographic setting of the carbonaceous shale combined with high carbonate and tourmaline contents points to a supersaline sabkha-type environment along the edge of a palaeohigh on which algal reefs formed. The sulphides had a syn-sedimentary origin with the metals coming from erosion of the hinterland and out of the sea water.

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Cited by (10)

  • Sequence and carbon isotopic stratigraphy of the Neoproterozoic Roan Group strata of the Zambian copperbelt

    2011, Precambrian Research
    Citation Excerpt :

    The variation in δ13C values was between sample pairs was between 1 and 1.3‰ (Bull, unpublished data), an order of magnitude less than the >10‰ isotopic excursions considered significant for correlation purposes. Chambishi Southeast is a blind occurrence of Cu-Co mineralization hosted by the Copperbelt Orebody Member on the north-eastern margin of the Chambishi Basin, 5 km southeast of the Chambishi mine (Fleischer, 1984; Fig. 2). A 5 km long, east-west trending fence of holes from the area has been examined to determine the sedimentary facies architecture of the “classical” (i.e. Copperbelt Orebody Member present) ZCB stratigraphy (Fig. 4a).

  • Ore-related diagenesis-An encyclopedic review

    1988, Developments in Sedimentology
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