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Mineralogical characterization of the Nkamouna Co–Mn laterite ore, southeast Cameroon

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Abstract

The Nkamouna property is an oxide laterite deposit developed on serpentinized peridotite in southeast Cameroon. It is enriched in Co and Mn, has sub-economic Ni grades and will be mined primarily for Co. The ore zone is ca. 10 m thick and comprises the lower breccia (∼3 m thick) and ferralite (7–8 m thick) units sandwiched between an 8-m-thick ferricrete overburden and a barren hydrated Mg–silicate saprolite. The ore mineral assemblage includes Mn oxyhydroxides, magnetite, maghemite, ferritchromite, goethite, hematite, kaolinite and gibbsite. Lithiophorite is the most common Mn mineral and is the main host of Co, Mn and a significant proportion of Ni. It occurs as coatings in pores and on other mineral grains and as concretions and impregnations in the matrix. It is invariably associated with gibbsite in the lower breccia and with magnetite and ferritchromite in the ferralite. Although ore in the lower breccia is volumetrically less important than the ferralite, it has the highest grade and Co/Ni ratio. The lithiophorite in the ore zone is authigenic, and its formation was enhanced by influx of Al3+ from the overlying ferricrete. Magnetite and ferritchromite in the ferralite are relicts and contributed to mineralization by enhancing the permeability of the ferralite and providing substrates for the precipitation of the Mn oxyhydroxides. The structure and mode of occurrence of the lithiophorite makes Nkamouna ore amenable to physical beneficiation, producing a concentrate with Co grades 2.3–4.5 times higher than the run-of-mine ore.

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Notes

  1. Geovic (www.geovic.net) is the company that owns the Nkamouna and other laterite deposits in the Lomié area.

  2. Hypocoatings are impregnative/depletive pedofeatures that occur in the matrix but adjacent to natural surfaces such as voids (Stoops 2003).

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by Geovic Cameroon Plc and an NSERC discovery grant to Dr Sarah Gleeson. Field work was facilitated by Geovic Cameroon geologists and field crew. The authors also wish to express gratitude to Dr Richard Herrington and Dr Hazel Hunter both of the Department of Mineralogy, Natural History Museum. GLD’s trip to London, UK for the microanalyses was partly funded by research grant from the Society of Economic Geologists Student Foundation. An in-depth review by Patrick Williams and two anonymous reviewers greatly improved the quality of the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada, T6G 2E3

    G. Lambiv Dzemua & S. A. Gleeson

  2. Department of Mineralogy, Natural History Museum, London, SW7 5BD, UK

    P. F. Schofield

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  1. G. Lambiv Dzemua
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  2. S. A. Gleeson
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Correspondence to G. Lambiv Dzemua.

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Lambiv Dzemua, G., Gleeson, S.A. & Schofield, P.F. Mineralogical characterization of the Nkamouna Co–Mn laterite ore, southeast Cameroon. Miner Deposita 48, 155–171 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00126-012-0426-3

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