Kawanga U3O8 (KML FirstQuantum) - Zambian Copperbelt (sitios de interés)

 

KAWANGA HISTORY
• Rhokana Corporation Limited conducted a regional exploration programme, including the Lumwana West area in the early 1930’s. The company produced reconnaissance maps covering the area at a scale of 1:126,720. Geological mapping was conducted by Mwinilunga Mines from 1953 to 1961; and by AGIP from the mid-1970’s to the late 1980’s. AGIP used airborne magnetic-radiometric surveys, stream sediment sampling, mapping and core drilling (Coats, 2001). Maps of various scales were generated by AGIP (from 1:250,000 to 1:50), as part of an exploration programme for radioactive (especially uranium) minerals.

• AGIP discovered the Kawanga uranium deposit during this campaign. AGIP drilling intersected uranium mineralisation at one or more layers, each up to several metres thick, over a strike length of approximately 1 km. A total of 302 rotary and diamond drillholes were drilled to evaluate and delineate the uranium mineralisation, though 51 drillholes did not intersect mineralised zones (AGIP, 1975).

• The deposit consists of lenses of mineralisation with an estimated uranium content of approximately 2,000 tonnes, according to J.S. Coats (2001). A grade has not been established in accordance to an acceptable mining code. Any extrapolation of this figure must be treated with extreme caution. Snowden has not reviewed this historical estimate. Estimating a grade for the Kawanga uranium deposit will be a priority for management.

• AGIP divided the area into the Basement Complex unconformably overlain by Katanga metasediments.The Basement Complex comprised granites, migmatitic gneisses and schists intruded by pegamtites and amphibolites. Belts of mica-schists in the Basement Complex were referred to as a sheared facies.

• Radioactive anomalies were discovered at a number of locations within the Basement Complex and in the overlying Lower Roan Group. Uranium was found in traces of autunite and thorium-free pitchblende in quartz-kyanite-mica-chlorite-schists underlying a quartzite marker horizon, and in fractures (Meneghel, 1979 and 1984).

• AGIP formed a JV with Compagnie Générale Des Matières Nucléaires (COGEMA) in the late 1970’s. From 1980 to 1986, the JV carried out extensive exploration for uranium in the Domes Region of the North-Western Province following initial encouraging results by AGIP exploration groups (Cosi et al, 1992).