Skip Navigation Links.
Journal of Geosciences and Geomatics. 2015, 3(2), 28-36
DOI: 10.12691/JGG-3-2-1
Original Research

Lead Reservoirs and Metallization in Nigeria: Example of a Contrasting Geological Terrains

Silas Dada1, Onema Adojoh2, , Adisa Rahaman3 and Ibrahim Garba4

1Kwara State University, Department of Geology, Malete, P.M.B 1530 Ilorin, Nigeria

2University of Liverpool, School of Environmental Sciences, Department of Geography, Earth and Ecological Sciences, Roxby Building, Room 805 B, L69 7ZT, UK

3Obafemi Awolowo University, Department of Geology, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

4Kano State University of Science and Technology, Department of Geology, P.M.B 3244, Wudil, Nigeria

Pub. Date: April 13, 2015
Full Text PDF

Cite this paper

Silas Dada, Onema Adojoh, Adisa Rahaman and Ibrahim Garba. Lead Reservoirs and Metallization in Nigeria: Example of a Contrasting Geological Terrains. Journal of Geosciences and Geomatics. 2015; 3(2):28-36. doi: 10.12691/JGG-3-2-1

Abstract

Whole rock and mineral extracts from Nigerian goldfields of late Proterozoic age are significantly more radiogenic than those from the much younger Mesozoic lead-zinc mineralization in the Benue Trough, their common formation by hydrothermal processes notwithstanding. Their marked contrasts in lead isotope compositions can be attributed to differences in source reservoirs, structural settings and geological history rather than their age of mineralization. The Mesozoic sulphides have a remarkable uniformly unradiogenic composition for their age, placing the deposits in the lower crustal geotectonic environment that indicate a source of much lower µ. In contrast, mineral extracts from the southwestern and northwestern Nigeria gold deposits show increasingly radiogenic composition and plot in the mixed and upper crustal geotectonic fields respectively, typical of sources enriched in U/Pb and Th/Pb ratios, with clear indication of larger upper crustal reservoir of much higher µ. Therefore, exploration efforts may need to emphasize near-source mineralization prospects of low radiogenic Pb composition for economic deposits.

Keywords

lead reservoirs, metallization, U/Pb and Th/Pb ratios, Benue trough, economic deposits

Copyright

Creative CommonsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References

[1]  Annor AE (1995) U-Pb zircon age for Kabba-Okene granodiorite gneiss: implication for Nigeria’s basement chronology. African Geoscience Review 2 101-105.
 
[2]  Ayuso RA, Wooden JL, Foley NK, Seal RR, Sinha AK (2005) U-Pb Zircon Ages and Pb Isotope Geochemistry of Gold Deposits in the Carolina Slate Belt of South Carolina. Economic Geology 100 no. 2; p. 225-252.
 
[3]  Bielicki KH, Tischendorf G (1991) Lead isotope and Pb-Pb model age determinations of ores from Central Europe and their metallogenetic interpretation. Contributons to Mineralogy and Petrology 106 4 440-461.
 
[4]  Bruguier O, Dada S, Lancelot JR (1994) Early Archaean component (>3.5 Ga) within a 3.05 Ga orthogneiss from northern Nigeria: U-Pb zircon evidence. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 125 89-103.
 
[5]  Caby R, Boesse M (2001) Pan African nappe system in southwest Nigeria: the Ife Ilesha schist belt. Journal of African Earth Sciences 33 211-225.
 
[6]  Dada SS, Respaut JP (1989) La monzonite a fayalite de Bauchi (bauchite): Nouveau emoin d’ún magmatisme syntectonique pan-africain au nord du Nigeria. Compte Rendus Academie des Sciences de Paris 309 (II) 887-892.
 
[7]  Dada SS, Lancelot JR, Briqueu L (1989) Age and origin of the annular charnockitic complex at Toro, Northern Nigeria: U-Pb and Rb-Sr evidence. Journal of African Earth Sciences 9 2 227-234.
 
[8]  Dada, S.S., Briqueu, L. Harms, U., Lancelot, J.R. & Matheis, G. (1995) Charnockitic and monzonitic Pan-African series from north central Nigeria: Trace-element and Nd, Sr, Pb isotope constraints on their petrogenesis. Chemical Geology (Isotope Geoscience) 124 233-252.
 
[9]  Dada S S (1998) Crust-forming ages and Proterozoic crustal evolution in Nigeria: a reappraisal of current interpretations. Precambrian Research 87 65-74.
 
[10]  Dada SS (2008) Proterozoic evolution of the Nigeria-Boborema province. Geological Society, London, Special Publications 294 121-136.
 
[11]  Doe BR, Stacey JS (1974) The application of lead isotopes to the problem of ore genesis and ore prospect evaluation: Economic Geology 69 757-776.
 
[12]  Garba I (2000) Origin of Pan-African mesothermal gold mineralization of Bin Yauri, Nigeria. Journal of African Earth Sciences 31 2 433-449.
 
[13]  Grant NK (1970) Geochemistry of Precambrain basement rocks from Ibadan, southwestern Nigeria. Earth & Planetary Science Letters 10 29-38.
 
[14]  Jardin De Sa EF, Wacedo WH, Legrand JM, Mcreath L, Galindo A, SA, JM (1987) Proterozoic granitoids in a polycylic setting; the Serido region, northeast Brazil; In: International Symposium on Granites and Associated Mineralization, Salvador, Brazil, Extended Abstracts 103-110.
 
[15]  Koeppel V (1984) Lead Isotopes as Tracers of the Origin of Metals in Ore Deposits and of the Evolution of Continental Crust: Examples from Western and Central Europe. Proceedings of the 27th International Geological Congress in Metallogenesis and Mineral Ore Deposits 12 53-82.
 
[16]  Maurin JC, Lancelot JR (1987) Origine des mineralisations de Pb-Zn de la Vallee de la Benoue (Nigeria) d’apres la composition en Pb des galenes de l’encaissant. Mineralium Deposita 22 99-108.
 
[17]  Neves PS, Bruguier O, Vauchez A, Bosch D, Rangel Da Silva JS, Mariano G (2006) Timing of crust formation, deposition of supracrustal sequences, and Transamazonian and Brasiliano metamorphism in the East Pernambuco belt (Borborema Province, NE Brazil): Implications for western Gondwana Assembly. Precambrian Research 149 197-216.
 
[18]  Neves SP, Bruguier O, Rangel Da Silva, JM, Bosch D, Alcantara VC, Lima CM (2009) The age distributions of detrital zircons in metasedimentary sequences in eastern Borborema Province (NE Brazil): Evidence for intracontinental sedimentation or orogenesis? Precambrian Research 175 187-205.
 
[19]  Offodile ME (1980) A mineral survey of the Cretaceous of the Benue Valley, Nigeria. Cretaceous Research 1 101-124.
 
[20]  Ogunleye PO, Ike EC, Garba I (2003) Geochemistry of the niobium-rich arfvedsonite granites of the northern Nigerian anorogenic ring-complexes. Annual Conference of the Nigerian Mining & Geosciences Society, Itakpe, 39.
 
[21]  Oversby VM (1975) Lead isotopic study of aplites from the Precambrium basement complex rocks near Ibadan, Southwest Nigeria. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 27, 177-180.
 
[22]  Oyinloye AO (2006) Metalogenesis of the lode gold deposit in Ilesha area of southwestern Nigeria: inferences from lead isotope systematics. Pakistan Journal of Scientific & Industrial Research 9 1 1-11.
 
[23]  Rahaman MA, Lancelot JR (1984) Continental crust evolution in SW Nigeria: Constraints from U/Pb dating of pre-Pan-African gneisses. In: Rapport dáctivité 1980-1984. Document Travaux Centre Geologie et Geophysique, Montpellier, II 4 41.
 
[24]  Rahaman MA and Emofurieta WO (1983) The potassic granites of Igbeti area: Further evidence of the polycyclic evolution of the Pan-African Belt in Southwestern Nigeria. Precambrian Research 22 75-92.
 
[25]  Rahaman M.A, Tubosun IA, Lancelot, JR (1991) U-Pb geochonology of potassic syenites from southwestern Nigeria and the timing of deformational events during the Pan-African orogeny. Journal of African Earth Sciences 13 387-395.
 
[26]  Rudnick RL, Goldstein SL (1990) The Pb isotope compositions of lower crustal xenoliths and the evolution of lower crustal Pb. Earth Planetary Science Letters 98 192-207.
 
[27]  Stacey JS, Hedlund DC (1983) Lead-isotopic compositions of diverse igneous rocks and ore deposits from southwestern New Mexico and their implications for early Proterozoic crustal evolution in the western United States. Geological Society of America Bulletin 94 43-57.
 
[28]  Stacey JS, Kramers JD (1975) Approximation of terrestrial lead isotope evolution by a two-stage model. Earth Planetary Science Letters. 26 206-221.
 
[29]  Tubosun IA, Lancelot JR, Rahaman MA, Ocan O (1984) U-Pb Panafrican ages of two charnockite-granite association from southwestern Nigerian. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 88 188-195.
 
[30]  Van Schmus WR, Brito Neves BB et al. (2003) The Serido Group of NE Brazil, a late Neoproterozoic pre-to syn-collisional basin in West Gondwana: insights from SHRIMP U-Pb detrital zircon ages and Sm-Nd crustal residence (TDM) ages. Precambrian Research 127 287-327.
 
[31]  Zartman RE (1974) Lead isotope provinces in the Cordilleran of the western United States and their geology significance. Economic Geology 69 901-942.
 
[32]  Zartman RE, Doe BR (1981) Plumbotectonics. The model Tectonophysics 75 135-162.