The Ity gold district is located in a Lower Proterozoic – Birimian – domain (named the Ity-Touleupleu Klippe) wedged within the Archean Kenema-Man domain, that forms the southern half of the larger West African Craton. The Ity-Touleupleu Klippe forms a northeast-southwest-trending greenstone belt, approximately 100km long and up to 15km wide. This belt has been formed, deformed and metamorphosed during the Eburnean orogenic cycle.
The Birimian formations comprise meta-sedimentary series (pelites, gresopelites and carbonates) and meta-volcanosediments (ranging from basic to acidic in composition), intruded by a series of granodioritic and dioritic bodies. These formations have been subjected to greenschist to lower amphibolite facies regional metamorphism. Skarns are developed along the contact between carbonate formations and granodioritic intrusive rocks. A thick lateritic profile is developed above the bedrock.
Mineralization at Ity occurs in different geological settings, that can be grouped into at least two main types as identified today:
> Skarns-hosted mineralization, developed as lenses within meta-carbonates proximal to felsic and mafic intrusions.
> Shear zones-related mineralization, associated to moderately to steeply dipping structures impacting different lithologies including metasediments, volcanosediments, felsic volcanites (daaplite) and intrusive rocks (granodiorite and diorite).
Deposits discovered to date in the ........