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Location: 40 km W from Caucasia, Colombia
Km. 22 Carretera Sur Oriente, CórdobaMontelibanoColombia234001
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The Cerro Matoso deposit is located to the south of Cordoba and north of Antioquia provinces, where three peridotite bodies are present in a north-south orientation, referred to as the Cerro Matoso nickel belt. The peridotites are associated with a Cretaceous ophiolite complex, located along the northern extension of the regional NNE–SSW-oriented Cauca-Romeral fault system. Tertiary age argillaceous sediments with local coal horizons surround the peridotites.The peridotites are present in the following areas:- Cerro Matoso mine area, comprising the current mine and possible extensions below sedimentary cover;- Planeta Rica License area, located 40 km north of Cerro Matoso mine; and- Uré License area, located 15 km south of Cerro Matoso mine.The local geological setting of Cerro Matoso is characterised by a complex set of rock types that have been grouped into a number of major rock sets.This geological basis for the rock type grouping is critical, as the local laterite profile is characterised not only by the evolutionary products of a typical tropical laterite weathering profile, but by several unique lithologies that also occur, including tachylite and very dark (black) saprolite units.The resulting vertical layering is based on common physical and chemical features and from top to bottom consists of four zones – a sedimentary cover, a limonitic zone, a saprolitic zone and fresh peridotite bedrock.The principal mineralisation types consist of Saprolite containing Serpentine and Ni-bearing Smectite as well as Ni bearing Goethite. The bulk of mineralisation at Cerro Matoso is found in the low MgO green Saprolite. Mineralisation is also present in high MgO green Saprolite, black Saprolite, brown Saprolite and Saprolitised Peridotite. Other lithologies have lesser amounts of mineralisation.Mineralisation in the form of fracture filling garnierite (with locally very high Ni grades) is also present in veins in the lower lithologies of the profile such as in green Saprolite and Saprolitised Peridotite.In the upper levels of the weathering profile the basement structures have not played a major part in the mineralisation controls with the sub horizontal weathering being dominant. Recent bench mapping has defined the rock types in the exposed faces and floors resulting in a detailed picture of the influence of the structures on the weathering and rock type. These structures are significant as they are capable of extending partially weathered Ni mineralisation up to 100 m or more below the current pit floor bedrock where present. The reduced influence of weathering and the increased influence of the structure on the rock type variability at the current pit floor is a major factor in the reconciliation issues experienced in recent years.
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