Geochemical Evidence for the Origin of the Daranna Manganese Deposit, Kebbi State, Nigeria

Abstract

Inorganic and organic geochemical and geostatistical studies of manganese ore deposits exposed at Daranna, near Kaoje have been carried out with the aim of characterizing and delineating the origin of the manganese ore deposits. Data were obtained from field observations and chemical analyses of 12 ore samples. Major and trace elements and organic geochemical analyses were conducted with Energy Dispersion X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer and Rock-Eval pyrolysis method at Geo-data GmbH Garbsen, Germany. Results of the Major and trace elements, total organic carbon content abundances and the correlation among them imply that Daranna mineralizations are mainly of hydrothermal origin with little contribution from contemporaneous volcanic materials and this is confirmed by high Fe/Mn (8.274 to 24.066 wt%) and low Co/Zn ratios and trace element patterns. The significant geochemical characteristics such as high Mn content (22.660 to 62.330 wt%; average 45.919 wt%), low concentration of Fe (2.590 to 3.310 wt%; average 3.008 wt%) reveal a primary distal hydrothermal source for mineralization. The position of samples on Ni–Zn–Co and (Co/Zn)–(Co + Ni + Cu) diagrams and evaluation of these data reveals that hydrothermal activity was the main process with sedimentary influence responsible for mineralization in the Daranna manganese deposit.