Geology, Geochemistry and Geochronology of the Kenticha Rare Metal Granite Pegmatite, Adola Belt, Southern Ethiopia: A Review

Abstract

This work reviews the geology, geochemistry and geochronology and discusses the spatial and temporal relationship of the granite pegmatite and the rare metal mineralization of the Kenticha granite pegmatite, southern Ethiopia using published and unpublished works to give a comprehensive understanding about the formation of the mineral deposit. The Kenticha rare metal pegmatite belt comprises several groups of pegmatites which show a high magmatic fractionation, regional and compositional zoning, mineralogical assemblage, and secondary alterations. The internal zonation shows high degree of evolution from the border to the core zone during crystallization and solidification of the leucogranitic to pegmatitic melt. Tantalum mineralization at Kenticha includes zoned tantalite-(Mn) and columbite-(Mn), as well as microlite, pyrochlore, uranmicrolite, and rare tapiolite, ixiolite/wodginite and Ta-bearing rutile. The tectonic setting of the Kenticha granite pegmatite in the Within Plate Granite (WPG) to syn-Collisional Granite (syn-COLG) granite and probably sourced from extreme fractionation of syn-to late tectonic granites or anatexis process of the metasedimentary rocks in the area. The emplacement of the Kenticha pegmatite was at ca. 530 Ma and temporally related to the post-collisional phase of granitic magmatism at 570 - 520 Ma, after the last tectonic stage of east African orogeny during the late stage of Gondwana assembly.