NAME: KEITH KHUMBULANI NKALA

PROGRAMME: MINE GEOLOGY

TRAINING COLLEGE: ZIMBABWE SCHOOL OF MINES
REPORT TITLE: MINE GEOLOGY
NAME OF SUPERVISOR: G.L. LULA
NAME OF MENTOR: B. MUONEKA

INTRODUCTION
To acquire data about Eureka gold mine. To understand the geology, mineralogy, and lithology of
Eureka Gold mine. To enlighten the employee about the mine environment.

Geology - Geology is responsible for the pit ore control duties of the Mining Department including
identifying rocks, making critical decisions about the ore, and providing geology related services to
other mine personnel, mineralogy, and geology of the mine. Exploration involving diamond drilling
and sampling is also part of the geology department. Grade control, geo-technical core logging and
data processing is also done by geology department

MINE HISTORY
Eureka mining site was discovered by a Greek Geologist in his search of gold and named it ‘Eureka
meaning I have found it’, it was first worked in 1895 then was developed as a modern gold mine in
1999, to produce approximately 70 000 ounces of gold per annum from an open pit before an
underground operation was established. The mine was operated during 1999-2000 after which
operations were suspended due to the then harsh economic environment. In 2018, Dallaglio
Investments (Pvt) Limited took over Eureka Gold Mine along Dande River in Guruve after it had
been lying moribund for over two decades and immediately started installing state-of-the-art
equipment and erecting new structures.
LOCATION
EUREKA Gold Mine is located 150km NNW of Harare within the Guruve district of Mashonaland
central Province. It is interlinked with Guruve Growth Point which is 3km to the West and Mvurwi
which is 50km to the south, coming from Guruve towards Mvurwi at about 2.5km the left turnoff
(CHIMANIKIRE TURNOFF) leads to the mine at 2.5km in the eastern direction.
REGIONAL GEOLOGY
The Eureka mine is located on the northern margin of the Archaean Zimbabwe craton along the
northern eastern margin of the Chinhoyi-Guruve greenstone belt. The Chinhoyi Guruve greenstone
belt trends SSW-NNE and has a maximum strike distance of 125km and a of up to 30km, the margins
are of the belt are largely in contact with younger granitoids and sediments. The Chinhoyi-Guruve
Belt largely comprises Shamvaian sediments and the surrounding granitoids are mainly related to two
intrusive events, younger granitoids which are part of the Chilimanzi suite and older granitoids of
tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite composition.

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GEOLOGY OF EUREKA
The Eureka mine is located on the eastern margin of the Guruve Greenstone Belt at the contact of a
foliated course to medium granitoid with meta-volcanics of the bulawayan group and meta-sediments
of the Shamvaian group. The degree of foliation of these granitoids decreases with an increase in
distance from the greenstone contact, decreasing from North to South. Of the Five deformational
events that the Chinhoyi-Guruve Greenstone Belt had been subjected to, only three influence the
structural and metamorphic evolution of the Eureka Mine and the surrounding. The Archean Orogeny
caused upper greenschist to epidote-amphibolite facies metamorphism along with isoclinal folds, this
is suggested to be concomitant with formation of the gold bearing quartz veins at Eureka gold mine.
The Magondi Orogeny had a minor influence on the structures and mineralisation, the Pan-African
Orogeny is associated with the greenschist facies and regional metamorphism of Archean structures
on the north of the mine.

MINERALIZATION
Foliated porphyroblastic granodiorites are the main host to mineralization in Eureka mine. The mine
is exploiting a narrow tongue of gneiss that intrudes meta-sediments of the eastern edge of the Guruve
greenstone belt. Gold mineralization is confined to quartz veins that occur parallel to foliation within
shear zones in the host rock. Ore forming fluids were highly saline and mineralization occurred at
high temperatures (450 degrees). These fluids allowed for gold precipitation within the granodiorite
during episodic brittle failure producing veins. This resulted in the mineral paragenesis at Eureka
mine from many magma-derived deposits, consisting of quartz, scheelite, molybdenite and native
gold.

GRANODIORITE
This is a coarse grained parenetic intrusive igneous rock that  contains a large amount of sodium (Na)
and calcium (Ca) rich plagioclase, potassium feldspar, quartz, and minor amounts of muscovite mica as the
lighter coloured

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PEGMATITE
A pegmatite is an igneous rock showing a very coarse texture, with large interlocking crystals usually
greater in size than 1 cm (0.4 in) and sometimes greater than 1 meter (3 ft). It is a plutonic rock formed
from water that separates from at crystallization. They can form in small pockets along batholith margins
and fractures that develop. Most pegmatites are composed of quartz, feldspars, and mica, having a
similar silicic composition to granite.

APLITE
This is an igneous rock equivalent of granite composed of quartz, alkali feldspars and very small
amounts of muscovite and biotite. They are mostly fine grain, white to light Gray and they are found
only in felsic intrusives like granites and granodiorites.

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SCHIST
This is a medium grained metamorphic rock composed of platy minerals such as muscovite, chlorite,
talc, sericite, biotite, and graphite

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CONCLUSION
The Eureka mine main valuable rocks of the mine are granodiorites, there are other rocks which are
present which include aplite, pegmatite, and schists. Quartz and molybdenite are their main economic
valuable minerals as they hold gold.

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