Altération supergène des protores à grenats manganésifères dans quelques gisements d'Afrique de l'Ouest

The wet tropical weathering of Precambrian spessartite quartzites leads to the formation of secondary oxidized ores. These ores result from different successions of superimposed elementary processes, among them:

garnet hydrolysis: Mn, Ca, and Fe are leached, and only an amorphous, silicoaluminous phase remains.

lithiophorite neoformation: Added manganese combines with alumina of the amorphous, Si-Al products.

leaching: Voids appear in the central part of the weathered garnets. They may widen, leaving only the quartz matrix with polyhedric voids.

epigenic replacement: The quartz is replaced by cryptomelane, while the garnets may remain unweathered.

The various ore types are characterized by the sequence of transformations and by the volumes that each transformation affects. These transformations are old because they are observed not only in situ ores but also in removed detrital ores. In the same way the major part of the accumulated stocks of oxidized ores must be old.