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Location: 25 km W from Karonga, Malawi
Level 20, 140 St Georges TerracePO BOX 7846, Shop 17, 200 St Georges TerracePerthWestern Australia, Austria6000
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Kayelekera is a sandstone-hosted uranium deposit associated with the Permian Karoo sediments and is hosted by the Kayelekera member of the North Rukuru sediments of the Karoo. The mineralisation at Kayelekera is hosted in several arkose units where they are adjacent to the Eastern Boundary Fault zone. The mineralisation forms more or less tabular bodies restricted to the arkoses, except adjacent to the NS strand of the Eastern Boundary fault at the eastern extremity of the pit. Here, mineralisation also occurs in mudstones in the immediate vicinity of the fault. The highest grades correspond to the intersection of the eastern and Champhanji faults. Mineralisation grade and tonnage declines with lateral distance from these faults. The lowest level of known mineralisation is currently at a depth of approximately 160m below surface.Kayelekera is situated close to a major tectonic boundary between the Ubendian and the Irumide domains. The Ubendian domain consists of medium to high-grade metamorphic rocks and intrusions cut by major NW-SE dextral shear zones and post-tectonic granitoid intrusions dated at 1.86Ga (Lenoir et al., 1995). These shear zones may well have been reactivated during and after deposition of the Karoo sequence, since many major brittle faults that offset the Karoo-aged rocks have the same orientation.Mineralisation at Kayelekera is hosted in several arkose units where they are adjacent to the Eastern Boundary Fault zone. The mineralisation forms more or less tabular bodies restricted to the arkoses, except adjacent to the NS strand of the Eastern Boundary fault at the eastern extremity of the pit. Here, mineralisation also occurs in mudstones in the immediate vicinity of the fault. It can be seen that the highest grades correspond to the intersection of the eastern and Champanji faults. Mineralisation grade and tonnage declines with lateral distance from these faults.Secondary mineralisation tends to be concentrated in vertical fractures and along the contacts between mudstone and arkose and is restricted to the upper parts of the orebody Primary reduced (i.e. carbon and pyrite-bearing) arkose ore accounts for 40% of the total ore. About 30% of the mineralisation is hosted in oxidised arkose (i.e. lacking carbon and pyrite) and is called oxidised ore. 10% of mineralisation is termed “Mixed Arkose” and exhibits characteristics of both primary and secondary arkose mineralisation types. Uranium in primary ore is present as coffinite, minor uraninite and a U-Ti mineral, tentatively referred to as brannerite. Modes of occurrence include: disseminated in matrix clay, included in detrital mica grains and intimately intergrown with carbonaceous matter. Individual grains are extremely fine, typically <10µm. Coffinite and uraninite also show an association with a TiO2 phase, possibly rutile after detrital ilmenite. It is possible that uranium deposition was accompanied by leaching of Fe from detrital ilmenite and precipitation of a TiO2 polymorph.The Kayelekera Mineral Resource area extends over a strike length of 1,600m (from 8,895,300mN – 8,896,900mN) and includes the 300m vertical interval from 1,000mRL to 700mRL.
