Central African Republic Bakouma Project
Location and Access
The Bakouma project areas are located in the Central African Republic approximately 870 km from Bangui, the country’s capital city situated on the Gboyo River. The project areas are accessed by road and light aircraft.
History
Bakouma was founded in September 1892 when the Belgians, led by Commander Balat and Captain Lemarinel set up a military post on the site. It became a part of the French Upper Oubangui in July 1894. Bakouma became a district under the French rule in 1944 and on 23 January 1961, the region eventually became a Sous-Préfecture in the Mbomou prefecture in the newly formed Central African Republic.
In a uranium survey in 1959-1961, phosphatic sediments were discovered near Bakouma. The phosphates are characterised by their high uranium content, which are amongst the highest recorded in sub-Saharan Africa.
Bakouma Project Areas, Uranio has 3, 4, 5 and 6
Local Geology
The Bakouma prospects are underlain by amphibolite to granulite facies metasedimentary rocks approximately 3.7 billion years old, these are intruded by Archaean granitoids. Unconformably, overlying these basement sedimentary units of Palaeozoic (Carboniferous–Permian) marine sediments and continental coal-bearing and glaciogenic-sediments are present in some troughs. Mesozoic sediments (Karoo, Jurassic–Cretaceous lacustrine and fluviatile deposits) and Late Cretaceous continental sequences are also present. The units form part of the Congo Basin Craton.
The Mesozoic sedimentary units in the basins host stratabound mineralization including uranium-bearing phosphorites that are geochemically enriched in uranium as well as copper and cobalt mineralization. Phosphorites have been recorded in Upper Cretaceous sedimentary formations. Uranium is also present as stratiform beds in uranium-bearing phosphorites in the same basin from Cretaceous to Palaeocene. Typical uranium mineralization in the Bakouma area is dominated by the presence of uranium-bearing phosphate minerals such as autunite, meta-autunite, torbernite and phosphuranylite. Other uranium minerals such as coffinite, swamboite and uranophane are also present in the Bakouma mineralization. Uranium mineralization appears to be primarily controlled by geological distribution with significant upgrading by structural deformation of the sedimentary sequence, thus higher uranium grades are observed along faults and in the apex of folds.