Geology, mineralization and development of principal metal mineral resources in Guinea

Guinea is tectonically located in the southern part of the Western Africa Craton and was dominated by three tectonic events, including Libérien, Eburnéen and Pan-African event. Geologically, Guinea consisted of eastern Archean-Paleoproterozoic Man-Leo Shield, western Paleozoic Bove Basin and southwestern Rokelide Orogn. Based on the the widely reviewing of former studies, this paper especially presented the development situation bauxite, iron, and gold resources and, combined with the knowledge on the geological background and classical deposits, provided an insight into their mineralization. It was suggested that the super-scaled bauxite resources in Guinea is formed from the overlapping of several key factors, including regional tectonics, parent rock, climate, topography and hydrogeology. Guinea hosts the largest untapped iron mineral resources which is mainly distributed in the Nimba and Simandou greenstone belts in its southeast, and formed by long sedimentary-metamorphic/deformation-weathering process since Archean. Gold in Guinea is dominated by orogenic type and formed in late Eburnean orogenic event (2102~2085 Ma). Gold deposits are mainly distributed in Siguiri Basin and controlled by structure and lithology.