Influence of regional transcurrent fault systems on mineralization in the Nigerian Pan-African province

Abstract

Regional fault systems evolve as a result of crustal movements of massive scale trailing for 
hundreds to thousands of kilometers across land and sea. The impact of these large-scale 
geologic structures within such provinces has resulted in the development of primary 
and secondary conduits, serving as pathways for the movement of mineralizing fluids. 
Such effects lead to ore deposit formations. The Nigerian regional fault systems trend
ing NE-SW include the Anka–Zuru and Kalangai–Zungeru–Ifewara faults which traverse 
the entire western half of Nigeria, evident within the Neoproterozoic supracrustal low- to 
medium-grade metasediments. They are marked by a series of discontinuous quartzite 
ridges, mylonites, sheared, and cataclastic rocks of discrete bodies. Gold and rare-metal 
mineralization, however, evolved within associated hydrothermal fluids that exploited the 
conduits and precipitated within and associated subsidiaries. This paper looks at these 
regional faults as they act as the primary plumbing systems and points of economic min
eralization. Concentrated mineralizing fluids enriched by valuable elements, ions, and  
metals are thus dispersed into various lithological and/or structural units through multiple 
subsidiary fractures/faults within the basement complex of Nigeria.