GEOLOGY AND GENESIS OF THE CENTRAL AFRICAN COPPERBELT ORE

DEPOSITS
Introduction
The Central African Copperbelt is one of the largest sediment- hosted stratiform copper
districts on Earth. It has been classified as a supergiant Cu- deposit and is also a major cobalt
producer. The total amount of copper has been calculated to be 140 million metric tonnes
(Mt) and the total cobalt resources being 6 million metric tonnes. Sediment-hosted stratiform
copper deposits are common worldwide, but supergiant deposits are rare. There are only three
large deposits that currently exist; the Central African Copperbelt, the Kupferschiefer in
Central Europe and the Udokan deposit in Southeast Siberia.
The origin of the Copperbelt ore deposits has been a source of extensive debate in the last
century as documented by Sweeney and Binda (1994). Detailed studies have recently been
carried out by Selly et al. (2005) and Cailteux et al. (2005) to ascertain the characteristics and
genesis of the copperbelt ores in Zambia and Congo. Lately, several researchers have
focussed on the chemical signature of ore fluids to interpret their origin.
Geological Setting
The Central African Copperbelt (CAC) consists of a series of sediment- hosted stratiform CuCo deposits in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (Fig.1).

Fig.1. Geological map displaying the location of ore deposits in the Central African
Copperbelt. KA: Kafue anticline. Modified from Cailteux et al. (2005).

The Central African Copperbelt (CAC) is located in the Lufilian arc, also known as the
Kantangan belt which is a 700 km long and 150 km wide part of the Pan-African belt (Fig.2)
between the Congo and Kalahari cratons (Cailteux et al., 2005).

Fig.2 Simplified sketch displaying the location and components of the Pan-African belt
(dashed line) in South-Central Africa From Kampunzu and Cailteux (1999).
The deposition and deformation of the Kantangan Supergroup ore bearing sediments is
related to the complex tectonic setting of the Lufilian arc, involving multiple phases of
relative motions of minor blocks between the Congo and Kalahari cratons (Selly et al. 2005).
The Paleoproterozoic basement gneisses and schists experienced a continental rift episode
during early stages of basin evolution. The sediments of the Katangan Supergroup that were
deposited in the opening basin have a maximum age of ~880 Ma (Armstrong et al. 2009).
The rift was followed by a deformation event at 790-750 Ma linked to the Zambezi orogeny
to the east (Kampunzu & Cailteux, 1999). During the Lufilian Orogeny, the basin was
inverted and the sedimentary layers were folded, thrusted and metamorphosed up to the
greenschist and amphibolite facies with metamorphic grade increasing from north to south
(Cailteux et al., 2005).

Stratigraphy and Depositional Environment of the Katanga Supergroup

The Katanga Basin started as a continental rift and evolved into a collision-related foreland
basin. Early stages of rift initiation are initiated by subaerial fluvial and alluvial strata in
several sub basins. These beds are overlain by a major transgression (flooding surface) that
begins a depositional sequence characterized by a thick section of shallow water carbonate
rocks overlain by shales.

Fig.3. Zambian Stratigraphic column showing mineralized interval (Cailteux et al. 2007).

Fig.4. Lithostratigraphic units of Zambian Katangan system.