Geology - Occurrence of Mineral Deposits in the Pegmatites of the Karibib-Omaruru and Orange River Areas of South West Africa

Pegmatites of these areas have become important sources of beryl and lepidolite and have yielded cassiterite, columbite-tantalite, and other minerals. Examination of about 60 of these pegmatites leads the author to question the opinion of earlier investigators that the concentrations of beryl, lepidolite, and columbite-tantalite found have mostly formed by hydrothermal or pneumatolytic replacement of previously formed quartz-feldspar pegmatites. The author concludes, on the contrary, that present knowledge of the occurrence of minerals in zoned pegmatites can be applied to prospecting and mining of pegmatite deposits in these two areas of South West Africa. PEGMATITES occur in abundance in certain areas of South West Africa and in adjacent parts of northern Cape Province in the Union of South Africa. Some of the pegmatite deposits were prospected before World War I, and intermittent mining was done during the period between the two World Wars. The deposits of the Jooste lithium mines became an important source of lepidolite, and beryl, columbite-tantalite, wolframite, and other minerals were produced. Since World War II prospecting and mining have been carried on vigorously, with the result that South West Africa produced nearly 3000 tons of beryl during 1949 through 1953, together with more than 40,000 tons of lithium minerals, chiefly lepidolite and petalite. Small amounts of tantalite, columbite, and other minerals have also been produced during the postwar period. Most of this mineral production has come from two pegmatite areas roughly outlined in Fig. 1. One is the Karibib-Omaruru area of north central South West Africa. The second is the northeastern part of the Orange River pegmatite area, which extends into adjacent parts of Namaqualand, in northern Cape Province of the Union of South Africa. The writer visited the two pegmatite areas in July 1951. The visit was brief. but it gave an opportunity to compare some of the' pegmatites of these areas with those studied and described in detail by many investigators in the U. S., Brazil, and Canada during and since World War 11.'-l' The writer has attempted to determine, in a preliminary way, whether the concepts of internal structure and distribution of minerals in pegmatite bodies developed out of these studies are applicable to prospecting and exploration of pegmatites in South West Africa. Previous Work In an important series of papers (1929 to 1942) T. W. Gevers, H. I?. Frommurze, S. H. Haughton, G. K. Joubert, and other geologists of the Geological Survey of South Africa described and discussed the pegmatites of the two areas.*-" These works are the principal sources of information on the pegmatite mineral deposits of South West Africa. The investigations showed that in the two areas pegmatites are profusely distributed in pre-Cambrian rocks. These rocks are meta-igneous and metasedimentary units that have been folded and subsequently invaded by younger pre-Cambrian granites and by other igneous rocks. The pegmatites are considered to be genetically related to the pre-Cambrian granites. Pegmatites occur in the granite bodies themselves but are most abundant in the surrounding metamor-phic rocks, a pattern repeated in many pegmatite districts of the world. The origin of the pegmatites and the factors controlling the occurrence of mineral deposits in them were discussed at length by Gevers and Frommurze (1929)" and later by Gevers 14, 15 pp. 41-51, Ref.