Ngualla

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Mount Ngualla, often referred to simply as Ngualla, is a collapsed volcano located in the remote south west of Tanzania. It is approximately 200 km north of the Mbeya township and is currently managed by ASX-listed Peak Resources.[1] It gained widespread attention in 2010 after it was first reported to contain quantities of rare earths oxides, it was later announced in 2012[2] to contain one of the largest rare earth element deposits outside of China.

The area is also prospective for phosphate, tantalum and niobium which have also been found in commercial quantities, the area currently contains a JORC compliant resource of 1.6 million tonnes (using a 3% lower-cut grade) of rare earths.

Name

The name 'Ngualla' comes from the Swahili word for 'bald head', which reflects the appearance of a large piece of the mostly bare land in which there is no habitation, agriculture and very little wild life.[3]

A panorama of Ngualla with workmen on site.

Formation

Ngualla is a Proterozoic carbonatite estimated to be ±1,000 million years old and is a plug-like intrusive carbonatite with a diameter of approximately 3 km, made up of various successive carbonatite phases.[4]

Ngualla is intrusive into Precambrian gneisses, quartzites and ryo-dactic volcanics. It is a carbonatite-fenite complex of oval outline with a longer axis orientated approximately north-south.[5]

Over a north-south trending central ridge and an area of the north-western side of the complex carbonatite outcrops are found, surrounded by red soil. This is in turn surrounded by a ring of low-hills that are predominantly covered by fenites. The fenite zone is up to 1 km wide with a breccias zone adjacent to the carbonatitie.

The carbonatite is broadly of three types:[6]

  1. An outer sovite that is banded and magetite free. In this zone apatite, biotite, muscovite, quarts and chlorite are accessories.
  2. An intermediate zone consisting of well banded sovite and contains euhedral megnetite and commonly dolomite.
  3. A central zone comprosing poorly banded sovite containing fluorite, biotite, amphibole, parasite and rarely pyrochlore.

Dolomitic and ankeritic veins are widespread throughout the complex as are calcite-quartz veins with minor galena, barite and chacopyrite.

Rare Earth Exploration

The Ngualla rare earth deposit can be divided into two geographic and geological areas, the southern rare earth zone located in the centre of the carbonatite around Ngualla Hill, and the south west alluvial zone.

The southern rare earth zone is a 1 kilometre by 1 kilometre area in the low magnetic central core of the Ngualla Carbonatite. Rare earth mineralisation occurs from the surface and is enriched in the weathered zone of the carbonatite, varying from a few metres to 140 metres vertical depth. The bulk of the mineral resource at Ngualla is contained within the southern rare earth zone and most of the highest grade component occurs near surface within the weathered zone.

The south west alluvial zone is located the south west of Ngualla with rare earth mineralisation occurring from the surface within unconsolidated ferruginous gravels to depths up to 30 meters. These alluvials are the result of erosion, transportation and deposition from the weathered bed rock mineralisation in the southern rare earth zone.

Distribution of JORC Compliant Rare Earths found at Ngualla
Element Oxide Ngualla Southern REZ % Ngualla SW Alluvial % Ngualla Average%
Light RE Lanthanum La2O3 27.5 23.4 27.1
Light RE Cerium CeO2 48.3 48.1 48.3
Light RE Praseodymium Pr6O11 4.72 4.91 4.74
Light RE Neodymium Nd2O3 16.1 17.5 16.3
Light RE Samarium Sm2O3 1.59 2.14 1.65
Heavy RE Europium Eu2O3 0.32 0.53 0.35
Heavy RE Gadolinium Gd2O3 0.73 1.24 0.78
Heavy RE Terbium Tb4O7 0.06 0.13 0.07
Heavy RE Dysprosium Dy2O3 0.14 0.43 0.17
Heavy RE Holmium Ho2O3 0.02 0.06 0.02
Heavy RE Erbium Er2O3 0.05 0.14 0.06
Heavy RE Thulium Tm2O3 0.00 0.01 0.00
Heavy RE Ytterbium Yb2O3 0.02 0.07 0.02
Heavy RE Lutetium Lu2O3 0.00 0.01 0.00
Other Yttrium Y2O3 0.40 1.42 0.52
Total 100% 100% 100%

Mineralogical studies

Mineralogical studies have shown that bastnasite and synchysite are the main rare earth minerals and occur within a barite – iron oxide hydroxide lithology in the weathered zone and a carbonate rich lithology with barite in fresh carbonatite. Alumina is negligible and there are no clay minerals. Uranium and thorium levels are very low at 17ppm and 37ppm average respectively within +1% REO mineralisation in the southern rare earth zone.[7]

In December 2012, Peak Resources announced - as part of their planned beneficiation process of the Ngualla deposit - that results had shown an intimate association between iron oxide and rare earth minerals (hematite and bastnaesite). The gangue minerals of barite and silica generally do not contain rare earth inclusions and have discrete grain boundaries with bastnaesite, indicating that grinding will separate these minerals.[8]

Geological similarities have been drawn to fellow Australian miner Lynas's world class Western Australian project Mount Weld.

References

  1. ↑ Peak Resources - Peak Acquires 100% of the Ngualla Rare Earth Project, ASX Announcement, 22 February 2012
  2. ↑ Peak Resources - Maiden Resource, Ngualla Rare Earth Project, ASX Announcement, 29th February 2012
  3. ↑ Resource Stocks: Peak Resources - Having a rare old time in Africa, December 2011
  4. ↑ University of Guelph, Rocks for Crops: Tanzania, page 382
  5. ↑ Lucien Cahen, N. J. Snelling, The geochronology and evolution of Africa, Issue 14, Clarendon Press, 1984
  6. ↑ James, T.C. 1954. A note on the Ngualla carbonatite, Chunya District. Unpublished Report, Geological Survey of Tanganyika
  7. ↑ Proactive Investors - Peak Resources Ngualla JORC Resource
  8. ↑ Proactive Investors - Peak Resources achieves breakthrough in beneficiation at Ngualla Rare Earth Project

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