Karma is located in the Paleoproterozoic Baolé-Mossi domain of the West African Craton, specifically in the Birimian supracrustal rocks, which were probably developed upon a juvenile Paleoproterozoic crust (ca. 2.40-2.20 Ga).
Karma is situated in the regionally east-west trending Goren greenstone belt. The geology consists of a folded sequence of greywacke, siltstone, shale in the south-east and clastic, volcaniclastic and mafic volcanic rocks to the north-west. The western margin of the project area presents a broad north-south magnetic lineament that is interpreted as a first-order, crustal scale, sinistral, shear zone named the Ouahigouya Shear Zone (OSZ). The OSZ extends from the south into Boromo Greenstone Belt and branches in the Karma project into a series of north-east trending sub-shears reactivated during the Eburnean Orogeny between 2,130 and 1,980 Ma.
Substantial areas of Karma are covered by lateritic units, dominantly gravels and cuirasse, which form a highly indurated upper part of the lateritic regolith. A few lateritization events have resulted in weathering to depths of up to 120m. Laterites and sand cover limit the extent of bedrock outcrop in the project area and have limited the geological understanding of the region.
Seven mineral deposits at Karma have been defined up to now over the project area, namely, Kao, North Kao, GGII, GGI, Nami, Rambo and Yabonsgo deposits.
The Kao deposit is centered on a metric to ........
