MINISTRY OF MINES AND MINERALS DEVELOPMENT

Known and Potential Occurrences of Industrial  Stones    

Limestone

Carbonate rocks are a common component of the Katanga Supergroup and also occur within the Basement Supergroup. Limestone and dolomite are abundant in the area around Lusaka and these and other deposits in the Southern, North Western, Northern and Luapula Provinces have been identified as being suitable for agricultural use. High-purity, low-MgO limestone's are currently being exploited from the lower Katanga succession near Ndola on the Copperbelt. Extensive deposits of limestone, dolomite exist around Lusaka, in the southern part of Central Province and in isolated scattered occurrences in Eastern Province

Silica Sand

Sands of various specifications occur throughout Zambia but the only occurrence to have been exploited is the deposit of high-quality glass sand at Kapiri Mposhi which was the basis for glass manufacture by Kapiri Glass Products Ltd., until the recent closure of the company. The sand is an unconsolidated eluvial deposit derived by the weathering of quartzites of the Muva Supergroup

Phosphate

 Apatite, the most important potential source of phosphate, occurs in significant concentrations in syenitic intrusions and carbonatite bodies. Significant syenite-hosted deposits include the apatite-quartz bodies of Chilembwe, near Petauke in eastern Zambia, and breccia and pegmatite bodies in syenite intrusions near the north-eastern margin of the Hook Granite Complex. Carbonatites in Zambia are mostly related to Karoo-age rifts and very substantial low-grade apatite deposits have been noted in two of these - Kaluwe in the Rufunsa-Feira area and Nkombwa Hill at the northern end of the Luangwa Rift.

Coal

 Zambia possesses substantial coal resources and has been producing coal continuously since 1967. The bulk of the coal has come from the Maamba coal mine, an open-cast operation in the southern part of the country near Lake Kariba. The Maamba deposit and other known coal occurrences are confined exclusively to the lower Karoo Gwembe Formation, within the series of fault-controlled basins that comprise the Mid-Zambezi Rift Valley. The Maamba deposit occurs within the Kazinze Basin but coal seams have also been discovered in the adjacent basins. Thin coal seams and carbonaceous shales have also been identified in the lower Karoo (Gwembe Formation) of the Luangwa and Luano-Lukusashi Valleys and in the eastern part of the Barotse Basin in western Zambia. Coal is mined at Maamba with a proven reserve of 20Mt. The coal is sub-bituminous durain-fusain with high ash content.

Feldspar

 In recent years the demand for feldspar has been from local ceramic producers and also from Kapiri Glass Products Ltd., based at Kapiri Mposhi. Production has mostly come from two pegmatite deposits - a 4m thick body of alkali-feldspar-pegmatite containing minor muscovite and quartz near Siavonga and a 5m thick, partially kaolinized, pegmatite at Shipingu, near Kapiri Mposhi.

Feldspars are known to occur in several places in Zambia, mostly in pegmatites. Most of the pegmatites in the country are exploited for their gemstone potential or for tin. Only a few have been exploited for their feldspar content.

 

Central Province

Serenje Area

About 9000 tonnes of feldspar in an echelon of pegmatitic bodies lying 38 km southeast of Serenje.

Lukusashi West Deposit

Feldspar also occurs in a 65m by 5 to 10m wide aggregate of microcline perthite, muscovite and quartz with occasional tourmaline and garnet. About 2,114 tonnes of reserves have been estimated.

Lukusashi South

An estimated 2,148 tonnes of insitu reserves of slightly weathered subhedral perthitic microcline are found.

Mita Hills area

This deposit is located about 6 km south south east of Mita Hills Lake. The pegmatites are predominantly microcline-perthite with a common size range between 5 to 10 cm. Sizes of up to 20cm for individual crystals are also common. The microcline-perthite is often pale yellow to pinkish or greyish in colour, but glassy varieties are present

The pegmatitic area covers is about 5 km2 and the deposit is designated deposit I and deposit II. The estimated reserves for deposit I are 20,248 tonnes and 14,632 tonnes for deposit

Northern Province

Shiwang'andu Area

At Shiwang'andu, large lenses and smaller pods of feldspar set in dykes up to 20m wide and from 5 to 45m long is found. These dykes and veins together form the pegmatitic body. The reserves for this pegmatite body are 1,500 tonnes.

North-Western Province

Kifubwa Area

Albite with minor proportions of potassium and calcium feldspars occurs in the Kifubwa river area in Solwezi district.The reserves are estimated at about 4,500 m3, with mineable reserves at 75% of this figure.

Eastern Province

Feldspar bearing pegmatites are widely spread in the Eastern Province, especially in the Lundazi and Chama  districts. In Lundazi the pegmatites are exploited only for their aquamarine potential.

Southern Province

Feldspar bearing pegmatites occur in several localities of this region. Pegmatites forming the tin belt of the Southern Province have been worked mainly for cassiterite.

In the Sachenga area about 50km southeast of Mazabuka pegmatites with a high content of white feldspar have been reported. An appreciable amount of feldspar is also found in pegmatites of the Pemba area, which were formerly exploited for their mica content.

 Siavonga Area

In the past, feldspar was worked by Mindeco Small Mines Limited, a then subsidiary of ZIMCO, and was supplied to Maamba Collieries and Kapiri Glass factory. The microcline was hand sorted after blasting  No reserve estimations have been done.

Others

Feldspar bearing pegmatites are widely distributed in the basement formations throughout the country but their potential still remains to be assessed.

 

Barite

Barite has been reported in several localities in Zambia. Most are of vein type in high grade metamorphic rocks of the Basement complex, but a few are believed to be of sedimentary origin and often associated with iron and manganese deposits. Individual occurrences are as follows:
 

Chibote Barite

This is the largest barite deposit in Zambia. It is located 75 km north of Luwingu. Nine deposits have been mapped and sampled along a strike length of 50 km within siliceous argillites, quartzite and shales of the Chibote formation

Tabular crystals of barite form a bed 0.3 to 0.8m thick in shales dipping at 55o. Reserves to a depth of 30m are 144,000 tonnes of barite rock with 90% BaSO4.

Chasefu Barite

Chasefu barite deposit is located 45 km north-northwest of Lundazi town, about 10 km from Chasefu Mission School on the Chikwa road   The deposit occurs in a terrain underlain by rocks of the Basement Complex which have been intruded by aplites, numerous sills of mafic composition and post-tectonic

Pegmatite. There are two barite veins; the largest is 340 long and 1.5m wide. The barite is massive, white, off-white to light grey in colour. The two veins between them contain 80,000 tonnes of barite, calculated to a depth of 30 meters with an average grade of 95.7% BaSO4.

Chirundu Barite

This occurrence is 10 km west of Chirundu. The barite occurs together with gypsum.  No reserve estimation has been made and the deposit is inactive

Kokole Barite

This occurrence lies some 15 km east of the railway line, 20 km southeast of Kafue town. Rubble and boulders of barite were found in 3 areas along a stretch of 0.8 km. A vein 100 m long and 0.1 to 1 m thick has an ore reserve of 200 tonnes with a possible 1,000 tonnes.

The barite is composed of small pinkish-white crystals (1-3 cm in size), embedded in a grey brown matrix of barite, haematite, limonite and quartz. It is a fissure filling vein type cross- cutting schists and rhyolite near a granite contact.

 

 

CORUNDUM RESOURCES

 

Rufunsa Area

Corundum occurs 9 km north of Rufunsa. The corundum in places makes up half the volume of the rock mass (Chlorite schists), occurs in crystals up to 1 cm in length and is associated with kyanite

Corundum was observed in schistose rubble in two localities 1 km apart. No further information is available, but the corundum bearing zone is thought to be narrow.

Mkwisi Area

Dark blue corundum occurs in a contact zone between gabbro and biotite schists near the headwaters of a small tributary on the eastern side of Mkwishi river, some 7 km north of Kafue river, near Chiawa.

A zone 76 m long and up to 21 m wide consist of decomposed talc and kaolin in which small blue and pink broken crystals of corundum occur, occasionally in small isolated pockets together with kyanite and sillimanite. Trial concentration of stream gravels by hand gravitation and panning produced very small amounts of corundum.

Mugoto Area

Corundum is reported to occur in pegmatites within mica schists on the west side of Nega-nega river some 4 km west of Chakela hill in the Mugoto area.

FLUORITE DEPOSITS

Sianyolo Fluorite deposit

This is the largest known fluorite deposit in Zambia. It is located at Sianyolo village in the Siavonga district of Southern province. Access is by bush tracks off the Lusaka-Chirundu road, 80 km away

Reserve calculations were done on veins above 1 m thick. and an average thickness of 2.3m was calculated with a maximum of about 6 meters. Proven reserves stand at 1.67 million tonnes at 85% CaF2 with an average thickness of 2.8 m. Indicated reserves are 585,000 tonnes with average width of 2.5 meters and inferred reserves are 3.845 million tonnes.

 

Siavonga Fluorite deposit

This deposit is located 2.4 km west of Siavonga harbour. Veins of up to 0.3m wide have been traced for over 150 m, but the reserves have not been quantified.

 

Mutua Fluorite

Five fluorite bearing veins are located around Shangwa hills, some 14 km north of Siavonga. Estimated mineable reserves are 16,000 tonnes per metre depth at grades varying from 40% to 60% CaF2. Assuming a depth of 30 m, probable reserves are in the order of 500,000 tonnes of fluorite at about 50% grade.

GRAPHITE  RESOURCES

Graphite occurrences have been reported in several localities in Zambia. Of these four have been examined in detail.

 

Njoka graphite

Njoka graphite deposit lies some 53km west of Lundazi town, 1.6 km northwards from the Lundazi-Kazembe gravel road.

The ore reserves to a depth of 5 metres are 41,460 tonnes containing 4880 tonnes with an average grade of 11.7% fixed carbon.

 

Kajumba graphite

Kajumba deposit presents a small graphite deposit but of higher grade than Njoka. It lies in remote part of Chama district in a country underlain by rocks of granulite facies.

Reserves to a depth of 1.5 meters are 6,000 tonnes with an average of 26.63% fixed carbon.

This deposit was exploited by a SIDO company in the early 1990s for production of pencil lead

 

Petauke graphite

Petauke graphite deposits are easily accessible via the Great East Road. They occur as flakes in lenses of graphite in an area underlain by a sequence of

URANIUM POTENTIAL

Uranium is found in the following geological environments in Zambia:-

• Karoo age continental sandstones and grits.

• Associated with the Cu-Co mineralisation in the Copperbelt.

• Basal Kalahari sandstones in Western and North-Western Provinces.

• Mporokoso Group sediments in Northern Zambia. These rocks are similar to the Witwatersrand of South Africa and thus have very high potential for Uranium and Gold.

• In pegmatites

• magmatic deposits

• veins

• Gneiss domes environment in North-Western Province.

• In carbonatites.

The only significant production has been 102,000kg of U₃0₈ from the Mindola shaft in Kitwe in the rocks of the lower Katanga Supergroup.

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