The Djarkadougou gold prospect is located on the Birimian greenstone belt of the Houndé exploration permit held by the company Orezone Inc. The permit is at 275 km far from the capital Ouagadougou south-western Burkina Faso, West Africa. This area is based on sheared and metamorphosed greenschist facies rocks. Metamorphism locally reaches to the amphibolite facies around intrusions. There are two major lithological units whose interface is marked by a NW-SE trending shear corridor: an unit of andesite-basaltic rocks of andesitic breccias in the East and volcaniclastic and sedimentary unit composed flows, tuffs and felsic to mafic breccia, interbedded volcano-sedimentary rocks. All this together is intruded by plutonic rocks, and various felsic to mafic dykes. These rocks have undergone ductile to brittle heterogeneous deformations and hydrothermal alteration sericite ±carbonate ±quartz±sulphide within deformation corridors. The rocks of the East and West domains affected by three phases of brittle-ductile deformation (D1, D2, and D3) and the meteoric alteration is systematic in superficial facies of Djarakadougou core drilling.Geochemical analysis shows a tholeiitic to calc-alkaline volcanic serie characteristic a bimodal volcanism. The spectra of normalized REE chondrites are generally flat and constant reminding those of N-MORB basalt. The chemical compositions of andesite and basalt are deferred on several discrimination diagrams especially Th / Yb -Nb / Yb and 2 Nb -Zr / 4 -Y show that andesites and basalts of the prospect are issued in geotectonic setting of volcanism preponderant arc.
The Tarkwaian deposits of the Birimian belt of Houndé are located in the Baoule-Mossi Paleoproterozoic area of the West African Craton. The sedimentary units consist of sandstone heterometric pelitic feldspthic sandstone with locally interbedded breccias, puddings and polygenic conglomerates. Lithic pebbles and macroscopic fragments that are similar to vein type originated quart castings and andesitic-dacitic projections, felsic sub-volcanic rocks evolving from microdioritic to microgranite composition are detected in terrigenous sediments. The volcanic packages form a linear strip composed of basic to intermediate rocks and andesitic to dacitic volcaniclastites. The contacts between these units are not clearly exposed but the different facies between the polygenic conglomerates and sandstones show discordant tectonic contacts with the Tarkwaian and the Birimian. The geochemical nature of these Tarkwaian formations is strongly influenced by the relative decline of the dominant quartz of feldspars and phyllites. The improperly classified and immature feldspathic sandstones show context affinities of island arc probably dictated by Birimian lithic products. Sedimentologically, the cross-bedded stratification and the predominance of sandstone terrigenous lands indicate a deposition in a fluvio-deltaic hydrodynamic setting along intermontane Birimian rift. The similarities between these Tarkwaian formations and the typical Tarkwaian of the Tarkwa basin in Ghana are probably limited to petrographic and not stratigraphic aspects, which lead to likening them to flyschoïd or molassic tardi Birimian deposits.
The petrographic and structural study of Gbowé (Grand-Béréby) formations located in the SASCA domain (South-West of Côte d'Ivoire) revealed migmatitic paragneisses. For an in-depth understanding of the petrographic, structural and metamorphic characteristics, six (6) thin sections were made from these paragneisses. These gneisses are characterized by paleosomes and neosomes (leucosome and melanosome), consisting of quartz, garnet, plagioclase, biotite, cordierite, sillimanite, myrmekite and microcline. The mineralogical assemblage thus described indicates a retrograde metamorphism (transition from granulitic facies to amphibolitic facies). The structural and microstructural study identified two types of deformation (ductile and brittle). The ductile deformation is characterized by phases D1 (NE-SW flattening) and D2 (NW-SE flattening), materialized by foliations (N140˚, N050˚), folds (asymmetrical folds, similar folds, concentric folds, ptymatic folds) and boudins. Fracture schistosity and fold fracture schistosity are characteristic of the brittle deformation (phase D3). The microstructural study coupled with the metamorphic study shows that the deformations had an impact on the texture of the minerals (recrystallization and mineral reactions). It also allowed giving the paragenesis of phases D1 and D2. The D1 phase is characterized by gar-net1, biotite1, quartz1, sillimanite1 and cordierite1 and the D2 phase is characterized by garnet1, quartz2, sillimanite2, biotite2, garnet2 and orthose2. These parageneses thus highlighted bear witness to a polydeformation and polymorphism that affects the study area.
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