Heavy Mineral Sands Exploration in the Republic of Guinea

Heavy Mineral Sands Exploration in the Republic of Guinea

Roosegaarde Bisschop, D.G.

Buxton, M.W.N. (mentor)
Ngan-Tillard, D.J.M. (mentor)
Voncken Voncken, J.H.L. (mentor)

Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Geoscience & Engineering

Resource Engineering / Earth Sciences

2015-11-17

The aim of this thesis study is to increase the geological knowledge on the presence of Heavy Mineral Sands (HMS) in the concession areas owned by Guinea Alluvial Mining (GAM) in Guinea. In order to achieve this aim the following main research question has been formulated: Does exploration of the concession areas show sufficient Heavy Mineral Sand prospectivity for further exploration? To answer this main research question, the following secondary research questions have been formulated: 1) What are the industry standards for HMS deposits? 2) Does literature research indicate that HMS could be discovered in the concession areas? 3) Do the exploration results show sufficient HMS exploration potential when compared to the industry standards for HMS deposits? In order to answer these research questions a literature study has been conducted and exploration has been conducted in Guinea. In the literature study the key parameters which form HMS and the main characteristics of HMS reserves have been researched. The literature research shows that the concession areas, owned by GAM, could contain HMS deposits. The exploration results show that two locations contain HMS and VHM (ilmenite, rutile and zircon) anomalies. These locations are situated in the sandy coast. The other geological domains in the concession areas (paleo strandlines, hydromorphic terraces and ancient terraces) did not show HMS and VHM anomalies. To estimate an exploration target for future exploration the block model method has been used. An estimation of the exploration target size has been estimated for a worst and a best case scenario. In the best case scenario, the Total Heavy Mineral (THM) content in the first two meters of sandy coast is assumed to be continuous. In the worst case scenario, the Total Heavy Mineral (THM) content in the first two meters of sandy coast are discontinuous. In this worst case scenario, the only locations which contain HMS mineralization are the locations which have been sampled. It is concluded that the estimated exploration target size, based on the explored areas, shows insufficient HMS and VHM mineralization to have resaonable prospects to eventually be mined. However, the estimation of the exploration target is only based on the sampled geological domains. The area west of Taboriyah contains a sandy coastline which has not been explored yet and has therefore not been taken into account when estimating the exploration target size. In addition, the exploration target is based on the first 2 meters of sediment in the sandy coast. If a drilling survey is conducted HMS could be found deeper than 2 meters. Therefore, sufficient HMS exploration potential remains for the concession areas to be prospective.

Exploration

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4384a3b6-3b35-47c8-958b-2f99e8d2166b

2018-11-17

9.828786, -13.7677

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2015 Roosegaarde Bisschop, D.G.