Nickel
Project Name: |
RULENGE |
Click on map to enlarge |
|
| Location: | Rulenge |
||
Licence lies within the Ngara District of the Kagera Region in western Tanzania, adjacent to the Burundi border. |
|||
Bukoba |
|||
Licence is located in northwest Tanzania close to the Border with Uganda and inland from the western shores on Lake Victoria within the Bukoba District of the Kagera Region. |
|||
Area: |
Rulenge |
77.81km2 |
|
|
Bukoba |
139.50km2 |
|
Access:
Rulenge
Access to the licence area is from the north via Ngara, which lies 45km from the north-eastern boundary of the licence. Ngara, which has an airstrip and small town, lies to the south of the main arterial tar road leading to the Rwanda border. The licence occurs within the highland country to the southwest of the Lake Victoria depression.
View across Rulenge Licence
Bukoba
The licence lies 13km to the northwest of Bukoba, the capital of the Kagera district. Bukoba has a population in excess of 100,000 and is serviced by road, air and water (Lake Victoria ferry).
Geology:
Rulenge
Rulenge in a regional geological setting lies within the units of the Karagwe-Ankolean System which forms part of the Mesoproterozoic Kibaran Orogenic Belt. The region is commonly referred to as the Kabanga-Musongati mafic-ultramafic belt, after the importance of the nickel sulphide bodies at Kabanga and the reef-type PGE concentrations of the Musongati nickel laterite deposit, in Burundi. Musongati is believed to be one of the largest nickel laterite deposits in the world. The nickel sulphides of the nearby world class Kabanga Deposit are associated with ultramafic bodies that have intruded into the metasediments of the Karagwe-Ankolean System. The metamorphosed sediments include sandstones, quartzites, shales, dolomitic limestones and cherts, with individual units mapped over tens of kilometers. The region is tightly folded with fold axes generally trending NNE.
Kabanga, 15km south east of the Rulenge licence, is owned by the Kabanga Nickel Mining Company, a joint venture between Xstrata and Barrick, and is currently in final feasibility stage. Originally discovered in the 1970’s by a combination of geochemistry and geophysics, funded by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the deposit now stands at;| Category | Tonnes | Ni (%) | Cu (%) | Co (%) | Au (g/t) | Pt (g/t) | Pd (g/t) | Ag (g/t) |
| Indicated | 9,700,000 | 2.37 | 0.32 | 0.19 | 0.04 | 0.07 | 0.09 | 1.04 |
| Inferred | 36,300,000 | 2.80 | 0.40 | 0.20 | 0.10 | 0.30 | 0.30 | 1.50 |
February 2007 Xstrata press release
Geological map of the Area
Interpreted Geological Cross Section Northeast of Rulenge Licence
Bukoba
Bukoba lies on the western marginal zone of the north-east trending units of the Bukoban Supergroup. The Bukoban Supergroup, which is inferred to span the Neoproterozoic-Palaeozoic boundary, is restricted to northwestern Tanzania. Rock units are weakly deformed and not metamorphosed and comprises sandstones, quartzites, shales, red beds, dolomitic limestones, cherts and amygdaloidal lavas. Anomalous Ni, Pb & Zn geochemical values within the licence area were reported from the 1970’s UNDP regional prospecting programme.