Geochemistry and origin of Fe-Mn oxide mineralization in Kaoje-Derena and their environs, northwestern Nigeria
Loading...
Date
2018-04-17
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Arabian Journal of Geosciences
Abstract
The mineralogy and origin of the schist hosted manganite and sandstone hosted goethite mineralizations west of Zuru schist belt
Nigeria was investigated. A total of five goethite and ten manganite samples were selected. Half of each samples were pulverized
and subjected to geochemical analysis for the major oxides, trace and rare earth elemental compositions using X-ray fluorescence
while the other halves were polished for their mineralogical analyses through Raman spectroscopy. The result of the Raman
spectroscopy showed that the manganites were made up essentially of psilomelane, todorokite and brookite, while the goethites
were dominantly goethite, rutile and ilmenite. The result of the elemental analysis was subjected to Principal Component
Analysis (PCA) using SPSS 22 software and discriminating plots using TriPlot software. The results of the discriminating plots
showed that the goethites were related to hydrothermal processes whereas the manganite ores related to detrital-diagenetic
processes. The conclusion drawn from the integration of field evidences, geochemical results, mineralogy, cluster analysis and
discriminating plots was that the manganite ores were products of supergene enrichment, while in contrast, the goethites were
formed primarily from hydrothermal processes but have been remobilized to its present position as a result of changing Eh-pH
conditions in Kaoje and its environs.