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Geology assists mineral exploration in Zambia. (Focus).

Article Excerpt
Zambia is one of the world's major repositories of copper, and the country still provides exciting opportunities for developing a range of mineral deposits. The British Geological Survey (BGS), in collaboration with the Geological Survey of Zambia (GSZ), has recently completed two major projects that have produced a large amount of published digital and analogue data on the geology and mineral resources of Zambia.

The first project, aimed at clearing the map and report publication backlog of the GSZ, was funded by the European Development Fund of the European Union. The second, carried out under the auspices of the World Bank-funded ERIPTA project from late 1997 to 2001, had three components: new geological and geochemical mapping in northwest Zambia; digital capture of geological mapping and mineral occurrence data in northeast Zambia; and the production of a new account of the geology and minerals of the whole country.

Clearing the backlog

Five structural maps and 37 geological maps were edited and published between 1996 and 2000. In addition to the maps, 45 explanatory texts were published as part of the GSZ's report series. Considerable improvements to the infrastructure of the Geological Survey Department were undertaken, and local cartographers received training in conventional and digital cartographic techniques. This work, together with an earlier World Bank-funded project carried out in 1993-95 by the BGS, and a European Development Fund project carried out by Italy's DaL SpA in 1991-95, cleared the Survey's backlog of unpublished 1:100,000-scale geological maps and accompanying reports.

Five sheet reports (Numbers 107-111), each with an accompanying 1:100,000 geological map, and a Memoir (Number 5) with a 1:250,000 geological map were produced. The mapped area of about 14,000 k[m.sup.2] covers the 1:250,000 Mwinilunga Sheet (SC-35-13).

Zircon U-Pb dates on rocks collected during the survey have provided important new information on Neoarchaean and Proterozoic tectonic, glacial and igneous events. Parts of the Kasai Shield, a Western Foreland and the western arm of the Lufilian Arc are traced into the Mwinilunga area. The Kasai Shield comprises a suite of metamorphic and igneous rocks (dated at ~2540-2560 Ma) and extensive porphyritic granites (dated at ~2050 Ma). Weakly-deformed Katanga Supergroup strata overlie the Kasai Shield...

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