An integrated ore prospecting model for the Mwamola gold deposit, Tanzania

Located along Kahama Archean greenstone belt around Victoria Lake area in Tanzania, the Mwamola gold deposit is a concealed large iron formation (BIF) type gold deposit closely related to the banded iron formation. The establishment of an oreprospecting model is very important in the search for the same type of deposits. The Mwamola gold deposit is the representative one among many gold deposits in the Archean Kahama greenstone belt of Tanzania. Orebodies are commonly stratiform and stratoid in form, controlled jointly by shear zone and strata, and mineralization is confined to the banded iron formation stratigraphic and lithologic units. The△T negative anomalies of ground high-precision magnetic survey can be used as a geophysical prospecting indicator because they can accurately identify ore-controlling strata (banded iron formation) or ore-bearing faults. The induced polarization depth measurement shows that "low resistance and high polarization" anomaly characteristics can serve as an indicator for the spatial orientation of the banded iron formation and gold orebody. The rock geochemical survey shows that Au, As, Sb have the feature of strong enrichment, and Au and As, Sb have significant correlation. Combined with geological, geophysical, geochemical prospecting information, the authors built a model of the Mwamola gold deposit, and establiehed a set of optimum combination prospecting methods and processes. The results obtained by the authors can play a certain guiding role in the exploration and evaluation of the greenstone belt banded iron form (BIF) type gold deposits.