Bushveld 2006

A Tour to Order - Organised by Porter GeoConsultancy
Bushveld 2006
1 to 10 May 2006

Chromitite bands alternating with anorthosite

A special 'Tour to Order' organised by Porter GeoConsultancy (PGC) to the specifications of the Brazilian company Amazônia Mineração Ltda.

The tour was to provide professional development to six of the company's senior geologists on the geology and mineralisation of layered mafic/ultramafic complexes.

The tour group visited a selection of major PGE, Cr, V and Ni deposits in the West, North and East limbs of the Bushveld Complex and the related Uitkomst Intrusive, supported by a high level short course and a two day field workshop-traverses across the complex led by renowned experts.

The tour was not escorted by PGC. However, PGC organised all of the details of the technical program, and obtained the necessary approvals and commitments, whilst Amazônia Mineração arranged and managed their own logistics and accommodation details to suite the requirements of that program.

Group Photo - See who took the tour,

The program included mine visits, workshops and field traverses as follows:

Johannesburg Short-course, a classroom course on the Formation, Geology and Metallogeny of the Bushveld Complex presented by the renowned expert, Prof. Grant Cawthorn, the Platinum Industry's Professor of Igneous Petrology, School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand;

Rustenburg Section PGE, exploits both the Merensky and UG2 Reefs in the Critical Zone in the southwestern Western Lobe of the Complex;

Western Chrome Mines, mining a number of layers in the Lower Critical Zone on the southern rim of the Western Lobe of the Complex;

Rhovan Vanadium Mine, recovers vanadium bearing titaniferous magnetite bands in the Upper Zone of the Complex on its Western Limb;

Potgietersrust (now Mogalakwena) Platinum Mines, exploits the thick Platreef on the margin of the Northern Lobe of the Complex;

Bushveld Eastern Limb Traverses, to study its 'magmatic stratigraphy', mineralised layers and their distribution with published expert Dr Johan Kruger;

Marula PGE Mine, extracting orte from both the Merensky Reef and UG2 Chromitite in the Critical Zone of the Eastern Limb of the Complex;

Nkomati Ni-Cu-Co-PGE Mine, in the coeval Uitkomst Complex, an 8 x 1 km, up to 650 m thick, harzburgite, gabbro, pyroxenite and gabbro-norite sill;

Elandsrand Witwatersrand Gold Mine, part of the Harmony West Wits Operations, included as an additional mine for the gold specialists in the group.

The image above shows bifurcating chromitite seams alternating with anorthosite within the Bushveld Complex in the Dwars River section, Mpumalanga.