Paloich Manganese and Iron Project
The Paloich Manganese and Iron Project lies in the Nile Basin between the Blue and White Nile rivers. The sediments filling the basin are transported by the Blue Nile from the Ethiopian Highlands and by the White Nile from Uganda and the Tanzanian Craton. As such, the Nile waters and their sedimentary loads drain from mineral-rich provenances and this assures a geochemical-focussing of sedimentary manganese and iron within the Nile Basin.
Map showing the Nile Basin, the location of the 2 drill holes and provenance area of Ethiopia and Tanzania Craton
It is here that two water boreholes drilled at regional villages in 1951, and logged by the Geological Survey, intersected zones of manganese and iron mineralisation. The boreholes are situated at the villages of Paloich and Wabuit, some 110 km apart. It is not known whether these are the only two boreholes drilled in the area but our inquiries suggest this to be the case.
The Paloich borehole intersected 82.91 metres of manganese and haematite mineralisation from 49.68 metres, with one zone of 3.66 m thickness from 79.25 m containing 32% Mn3O4, 38% Fe2O3 and 1.25% P2O5. The other borehole at Wabuit intersected manganese and haematite mineralisation from 54.86 m to 64.01 m (9.14 m) and from 96.01 m to 97.56 m (1.55 m). The grade at Wabuit is “less than 6%” Mn and the iron content varies from 46 to 70% Fe2O3.
At the site of the Paloich drillhole we collected a metallic concretion which was assayed by Intertek in Perth and shown to contain 5.18% Mn (the average of 2 assays). The fact that this material lies at surface strongly indicates that it s source is the nearby drillhole.