TITLE:
Geological Context Mapping of Batouri Gold District (East Cameroon) from Remote Sensing Imagering, GIS Processing and Field Works
AUTHORS:
Bissegue Jean-Claude, Tchameni Rigobert, Etouna Joachim, Fosso Tchuente Périclex, Danra Moh Guela Guy Basile
KEYWORDS:
Mapping, Remote Sensing, Landsat 8 OLI, SRTM, GIS, Batouri Gold District
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geographic Information System,
Vol.11 No.6,
December
27,
2019
ABSTRACT: The Batouri area is located in the Adamawa-Yade domain in East Cameroon region, and has a high geological potential as a host for gold deposits. It is covered by thick forest where outcrops are sometime scarce. The purpose of this study is to generate and combine different geological information which makes up the specificity of the Batouri gold District, in order to contribute to the better knowledge of its geological setting. From satellite imageries, GIS tools and field data; lithological units, lineament and density maps have been dressed at regional-scale of 1/400.000. The mapping has enabled the discovery of spatial and topologic relationships between shear zones, lineaments, gold occurrences and often mineralized granitic intrusions. According to the field data, lithological and lineament maps, the lithology of the Batouri gold District is characterized by alkali granitoids (tonalite, granodiorite, syenomonzo-granite, alkaline granite) hosted by orthogneisses and migmatites as gold mineralization hosts; while the lineaments show a major shear zones trending NE-SW defined by presence of mylonites. The shear zones crosscut all lithologies, mostly granodiorite where majority of gold occurrences is observed; locally, nearest these shear zones, rocks are transformed to the mylonites and gold is concentrated along. From density map, it is shown that the high gold mineralization zone corresponds to highest lineaments density. All those data suggest that gold mineralization in the Batouri district is controlled by tectonic and lithology. It is conclusive that Batouri gold deposit is epigenetic gold set emplaced in orogenic setting, during the post-collisional stage of the Central African Fold Belt (CAFB) and the Congo Craton (CC).