Second Projet de Renforcement Institutionnel du Secteur Minier de la République
Islamique de Mauritanie (PRISM-II) Phase V
Prepared in cooperation with the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy, and Mines of the
Islamic Republic of Mauritania
Note: This report has both and English language and a French Language edition.
U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2013–1280
2015
ABSTRACT:
In 1996, at the request of the Government of the Islamic Republic of
Mauritania, a team of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists produced a
strategic plan for the acquisition, improvement and modernization of
multidisciplinary sets of data to support the growth of the Mauritanian minerals
sector and to highlight the geological and mineral exploration potential of
the country. In 1999, the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy, and Mines of the
Islamic Republic of Mauritania implemented a program for the acquisition of
the recommended basic geoscientific information, termed the first Projet de
Renforcement Institutionnel du Secteur Minier (Project for Institutional
Capacity Building in the Mining Sector, PRISM-I). As a result of the PRISM-I
efforts, a great deal of new geological, geophysical, geochemical, remote
sensing, and hydrological data became available for evaluation and synthesis.
However, the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy, and Mines recognized that additional
work was required to extract the full benefit of the data before it could be of
greatest use to the international community and of benefit to the Mauritanian
minerals and development sector.
To achieve this benefit, the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy, and Mines implemented
a second Projet de Renforcement Institutionnel du Secteur Minier (PRISM-II) in
2006 to consolidate, synthesize, and interpret all of the existing data, create
a new 1:1,000,000 scale geologic map, and define the mineral resource potential
of the country. A consortium in which the USGS was the lead scientific agency
carried out the majority of the PRISM-II work. In 2008, the USGS Mauritania
Minerals Project was interrupted due to political changes in Mauritania. PRISM-II
work resumed in 2011, and was completed in 2013 with the delivery of over 40
separate written reports and plates, an access file containing the Mauritanian
National Mineral Deposits Database, and an interactive GIS containing all of the
multi-disciplinary data and interpretive areas of mineral resource potential in
Mauritania.
This report contains the USGS results of the PRISM-II Mauritania Minerals Project
and is presented in cooperation with the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy, and Mines
of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. The Report is composed of separate chapters
consisting of multidisciplinary interpretive reports with accompanying plates on
the geology, structure, geochronology, geophysics, hydrogeology, geochemistry,
remote sensing (Landsat TM and ASTER), and SRTM and ASTER digital elevation models
of Mauritania. The syntheses of these multidisciplinary data formed the basis for
additional chapters containing interpretive reports on 12 different commodities
and deposit types known to occur in Mauritania, accompanied by countrywide mineral
resource potential maps of each commodity/deposit type. The commodities and deposit
types represented include: (1) Ni, Cu, PGE, and Cr deposits hosted in ultramafic
rocks; (2) orogenic, Carlin-like, and epithermal gold deposits; (3) polymetallic
Pb-Zn-Cu vein deposits; (4) sediment-hosted Pb-Zn-Ag deposits of the SEDEX and
Mississippi Valley-type; (5) sediment-hosted copper deposits; ( 6) volcanogenic
massive sulfide deposits; (7) iron oxide copper-gold deposits; (8) uranium
deposits; (9) Algoma-, Superior-, and oolitic-type iron deposits; (10) shoreline
Ti-Zr placer deposits; (11) incompatible element deposits hosted in pegmatites,
alkaline rocks, and carbonatites, and; (12) industrial mineral deposits. Additional
chapters include the Mauritanian National Mineral Deposits Database are accompanied
by an explanatory text and the Mauritania Minerals Project GIS that contains all of
the interpretive layers created by USGS scientists. Raw data not in the public
domain may be obtained from the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy, and Mines in
Nouakchott, Mauritania.
A final chapter presented as a separate report (not yet published) consists of
a monograph on the geology and metallogeny of Mauritania. This monograph will bring
the work presented individually in the previous chapters of Open-File Report
2013–1280 into a single volume.
DISCLAIMERS:
Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and
does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
Although this information product, for the most part, is in the public domain,
it also may contain copyrighted materials as noted in the text. Permission to
reproduce copyrighted items must be secured from the copyright owner.
This database, identified as Open-File Report 2013-1280, has been approved for
release by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Although this database has been
subjected to rigorous review and is substantially complete, the USGS reserves
the right to revise the data pursuant to further analysis and review.
Furthermore, the database is released on condition that neither the USGS nor
the U.S. Government shall be held liable for any damages resulting from its
authorized or unauthorized use.
Although these data have been processed successfully on a computer system
at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), no warranty expressed or implied is made
regarding the display or utility of the data on any other system or for general
or scientific purposes, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such
warranty. The USGS or the U.S. Government shall not be held liable for improper
or incorrect use of the data described and/or contained herein.
DATA FILES:
00Readme.txt
of2013-1280_Publication_Index.xlsx.pdf -- this file provides a comprehensive
list and crosswalk of all chapters, deliverables, and citations in this
report. The contents of each deliverable and chapter are also provided
and can serve as a look-up table for the report and its parts.
Final_Reports - English and French final reports in PDF format for Phase V
deliverable 53-Geology-chap A
deliverable 53-Geology-chapter A_tables.xlsx
deliverable 55-Geophysics-chapter B
deliverable 57-Hydrology-chapter C
deliverable 59-Geochemistry-chapter D
deliverable 61 and 64-Remote Sensing-chapter E
deliverable 65-SRTM and ASTER-chapter F
deliverable 67-Ni_Cu_PGE_Cr-chapter G
deliverable 69-Gold-chapter H
deliverable 71-Polymetallic vein-chapter I
deliverable 73-Sediment Hosted Pb_Zn_Ag-chapter J
deliverable 75-Sed_Cu-chapter K
deliverable 77-VMS-chapter L
deliverable 79-IOCG-chapter M
deliverable 81-Uranium-chapter N
deliverable 8-Sed_Fe-chapter O
deliverable 85-Shoreline Placer Ti-chapter P
deliverable 87-REE_carbonatites-chapter Q
deliverable 89-Industrial Minerals-chapter R
deliverable 91-Mineral Deposits Database-chapter S
GIS_and_Maps
Note: Chapter E, deliverables 60 through 64, contains downsampled pdf files of the
maps contained in the chapter, for ease of downloading
Mauritania_GIS_Readme.docx -- This GIS readme file provides detailed
information about the GIS and related files.
Chapter A1_deliverable_51-Geology--(data bundle,1 plate, metadata suite)
Chapter A2_deliverable_52-Structure--(data bundle,2 plates, metadata suite)
Chapter B1_deliverables 54 and added value-Geophysics--(data bundle,
4 plates, metadata suite)
Chapter C_deliverable 56 and added value-Hydrogeology--(data bundle,
2 plates, metadata suite)
Chapter D1_deliverable 58 and added value-Geochemistry--(data bundle,
321 plates, metadata suite)
Chapter E_deliverables 60, 62, and 63-Remote Sensing (LANDSAT and ASTER)--
(data bundle,138 plates, metadata suite)
Chapter F_deliverable 65-Digital Elevation Models (DEM)--(data bundle,
2 plates, metadata suite)
Chapter G1_deliverable 66-Nickel, copper, platinum group elements (PGE),
and chromium deposits--(data bundle,2 plates, metadata suite)
Chapter H1_deliverable 68-Orogenic, Carlin-like, and epithermal gold
deposits--(data bundle,1 plate, metadata suite)
Chapter I1_deliverable 70-Polymetallic Pb-Zn-Cu vein deposits
(data bundle,1 plate, metadata suite)
Chapter J1_deliverable 72-Sediment-hosted lead-zinc-silver deposits--
(data bundle,1 plate, metadata suite)
Chapter K1_deliverable 74-Sediment-hosted copper deposits--(data bundle,
1 plate, metadata suite)
Chapter L1_deliverable 76-Volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits--
(data bundle,1 plate, metadata suite)
Chapter M1_deliverable 78-Iron oxide copper-gold deposits (IOCG)--
(data bundle,1 plate, metadata suite)
Chapter N1_deliverable 80-Uranium deposits--(data bundle, 1 plate,\
metadata suite)
Chapter O1_deliverable 82-Algoma-, superior-, and oolitic-type iron
deposits--(data bundle,1 plate, metadata suite)
Chapter P1_deliverable 84-Shoreline placer titanium deposits--(data bundle,
1 plate, metadata suite)
Chapter Q1_deliverable 86-Incompatible element deposits hosted in
pegmatities, alkaline rocks, and carbonatities--(data bundle,
1 plate, metadata suite)
Chapter R1_deliverable 88-Industrial mineral deposits--(data bundle,
1 plate, metadata suite)
Chapter S_deliverable 90-Database of mineral deposits in the Islamic
Republic of Mauritania--Access database
Chapter T_deliverable 92 - Basemap GIS--GIS files (approximately 100)
HOW TO OBTAIN THE DIGITAL FILES
The digital files constituting the geologic map database of this
report can be obtained via the Internet from the U.S. Geological
Survey publications website. Go to the web page at
http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2013/1280/ or http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ofr20131280
and follow the directions to download the files.
The main product is a Portable Document Format (.pdf) map, which
requires Adobe Acrobat for viewing, and from which paper copies may be
printed. Acrobat software runs on a variety of systems, and is
available for download free of charge from Adobe at
http://www.adobe.com.
Exel Viewer may be downloaded free of charge at
http://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=10 for
viewing the Publication Index that accompanies this report.
additional files included in this report.
ArcReader may be downloaded free of charge from
http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcreader/download.htm for viewing
additional files included in this report.