Geology

There are four main departments under the Group Geology leadership: Exploration, Drilling, Resource Geology and Mine Geology.

  • EXPLORATION

    The Exploration department explores for economically viable ore deposits. They focus on suitable geological environments and aim to minimise the time from exploration to production.

  • DRILLING

    Avesoro’s Drilling Department is very well equipped with an impressive range of rigs, enabling the company to quickly and comprehensively drill and assess prospects and add ounces of gold to the portfolio.

  • RESOURCE GEOLOGY

    The Resource Geology department develop orebody models using geological, geochemical, and geophysical data for the different gold prospects in the relevant regions.

  • MINE GEOLOGY

    The Mining Geology department is responsible for managing the quality and economic production of the ore zone, determined after assessing the results of grade control sampling and lithological and structural mapping and modelling in the open pit and underground operations.




Liberia

Liberia is situated within the Archean Shield portion of the 1.7Ga Man Craton. The Liberian deposits are located in sheared Archean formation rocks. The Archean rocks have been subjected to deformation and shearing, with the principal structures acting as conduits for mineralizing fluids which features rich gold deposits.

The New Liberty, Weaju and Ndablama deposits are all hosted in intercalated ultramafics and amphibolites and these were sheared and invaded by siliceous fluids which carried the gold. The Kokoya mineralisation is associated with erratic quartz veins in schists and amphibolites.

The New Liberty Project is underlain by three main stratigraphic units, which are further subdivided into minor zones of varying mineralogical assemblages. The geology is dominated by tremolite‐chlorite-actinolite‐talc plus/minus magnetite rich meta‐ultramafic, sometimes with phlogopite, and flanked by migmatite gneisses. The Hanging wall Complex (HWC) consists of migmatite and gneisses. Amphibolite bands alternate with quartz‐feldspathic gneiss repeating in fractals, from meter through to millimeter scales. The Footwall Complex (FWC) rocks are similarly banded, but the bands have a wider zone of foliated leucocratic gneiss and contain less but larger concentrations of hornblendic gneisses. The silicified metamorphosed ultrabasic suite (SMUS) is the principal host to the gold mineralization, and generally contains quartz, chlorite and amphibole, and a host of mafic minerals, including talc. At the contact separating the HWC and FWC from the SMUS are transitional rocks, named here as garnet phlogopite plus/minus actinolite gneiss, which have a strong schistosity and coarse grain size. This unit is also found within the ultramafic sequence.


The Ndablama Project is underlain by Archean greenstone comprised of amphibolite gneisses and ultramafic rocks. Geologically, Ndablama is subdivided into three main entities, designated the Northern, Central and Southeastern zones. The general geology of Ndablama consist of mafic and ultramafic rocks. The mafic package consists of amphibolite schists and gneisses which envelope a series of ultramafic schists. The ultramafic rocks have been subdivided into magnetite‐rich and magnetite‐poor zones. The ultramafic and mafic rocks are located close to the contact with a large granitic batholith to the east. The metavolcanic sequence has been intruded by granitic sills.

A simplified lithological sequence of Ndablama comprises three distinct packages: - The Hanging wall is comprised of a package of amphibolite gneisses sparsely intercalated with granitic gneiss and deformed granitic intrusions. Towards the base of the package bands of magnetite‐rich ultramafic can also be found.
- The middle package of amphibolite and ultramafic schists. The ultramafic are comprised of tremolite chlorite with either magnetite of phlogopite, and biotite. Occasionally, this package is intruded by granite breccias and quartz‐rich veins usually along the contact zone between the mafic and ultramafic rocks. This package is host to the mineralization zone.
- A lower package (the footwall) which is made up of more amphibolite and granitic gneiss units which are intruded by microcline granite and has weak hematite alteration.


The Matambo Project is named as two separate deposits which names are Center and West, within a 15 km-long.

The Matambo East deposit sits within a metamorphic suite of granite, described locally as meta-granite. The meta-granite has undergone multiple phases of metamorphism and has a range of alteration assemblages, namely silification with varying degrees of carbonate, chlorite, epidote, and plus/minus sulphide. The northern and southern extent of the granite is truncated by an Archean Greenstone belt that includes mafic volcanics, amphibolite, ultramafic, a range of schist plus/minus garnet-hornblende-biotite schists and minor intrusive dolerites.

The Matambo West deposit is largely the same geological setting as the Matambo East deposit with a package of meta-granite bounded by an Archean Greenstone belt that includes mafic volcanics, amphibolite, ultramafic, a range of schists plus/minus garnet-hornblende-biotite schists. There is a significant dolerite dyke intrusion within Matambo West that has displaced the meta-granite mineralization lodes. The dyke is void of gold mineralization and is more than likely a late-stage event.


The Weaju project is one of the typical orogenic gold deposits found within the greenstone belt. In the highly deformed area, there are many lithological units. The lithological units carrying ore within the mineralization zone are GRTM (Magnetite Tourmaline Granite), AMP (Amphibolite), and UMMT (Magnetite-Tremolite-Chlorite Schist). There is a rock type called GRBR (Granite Breccia) that bounds the mineralization zone but does not contain ore. Silicification, which is one of the alteration types, is important in many systems and is directly related to ore at the Weaju project. Phlo (Phlogopite) and chl (Chlorite) alteration are directly associated with the ore. Pyrite and pyrrhotite (Sulphide Minerals) minerals are found within the mineralization zone as gangue.


Kokoya lies within the Liberian Age Province and is dominated by northeast-southwest trending, strongly deformed amphibolite and gneissic units with a volcanic origin. Several episodes of deformation are recorded in the metamorphic rocks, including several generations of cross-cutting folding and faulting, metamorphism and locally inferred unconformities. Certain areas have undergone varying degrees of partial melting resulting in pegmatites and migmatites being observed. A swarm of northwest trending dolerite dykes of Jurassic age intrude the gneisses and amphibolites. A major east-northeast trending zone of intense shearing, the St John Shear Zone, runs through the Project area. A number of east-west narrow ductile shear zones (DSZ) have been identified, which have been preserved as carbonaceous or graphitic shears in some artisanal workings. A series of parallel to sub-parallel northeast–southwest trending Reidel structures have also been field mapped in the Resource Area.