Structural geology of the Kinsevere Copper Deposit, DRC

Abstract

The Kinsevere mine is a copper deposit located in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), within the Central African Copperbelt. This area is situated in the Katangan basin within the SE portion of the Lufilian Arc, which is a large, arcuate structure that extends from SE Angola, across the DRC, and into NW Zambia. The purpose of this study is to characterise the brittle deformation observed around the Kinsevere copper deposit to lead to an understanding of the deformation history of the area. This is accomplished by analysing fault-slip and fold data to help understand the relationship between regional palaeostress, faulting and folding present in the mine vicinity. This study also attempts to characterise fracture-controlled copper mineralisation within the interpreted geodynamic context of the area. The broader objective of this study is to relate the structural observations from Kinsevere to the deformation history of the Lufilian Arc. This study uses the right dihedral method to analyse four categories of brittle structures. The structural types analysed include slickensided faults, mineralised joints, and unmineralised joints and shear fractures. The data suggests that the palaeostress associated with the formation of brittle structures in the Kinsevere area occurred during three deformation events. The first event is characterised by a compressional stress regime which occurred during the early stage of the Kolwezian phase (D1). The second event is characterised by a strike-slip stress regime that formed as the result of clockwise rotation of the earlier (D1) compressional regime. Two fault-slip vectors were observed on the strike-slip fault planes, indicating that a reactivation occurred during the Monwezian phase (D2). The final structural event was characterised by the development of an extensional stress regime. This was associated with North-South oriented extension and is related to the East African Rift System (D3). These interpreted events correlate well with the geodynamic context related to the Lufilian orogeny. Another line of evidence that supports this structural interpretation is the presence of evaporitic minerals observed in the stratigraphic units surrounding the brecciated zones such as the RAT and the CMN. The structural association of these evaporitic minerals may be related to pre-existing, salt-bearing units, which were dissolved during an early compressive (D1) phase of the Lufilian orogeny. However, the contact between the Grey RAT and the Red RAT (distal from the breccia zones) does not show any evidence of faulting, and in the Kinsevere area the Grey RAT is always observed above the Red RAT. This suggests that the Grey RAT may be the uppermost stratigraphic unit of the RAT subgroup, which contradicts some previously published interpretations. Thus, the current structural architecture was probably formed from a combination of two separate mechanisms, including compression-related salt extrusion and the development of thrust faults and folding resulting from the shortening of the Katangan basin. Based on an analysis of the fracture-controlled mineralisation in the study area, it is shown here that most of the stress tensors indicate that these fractures were induced within the compressional stress regime generated by the Lufilian orogeny. This conclusion supports studies which suggest a multiphase origin for the mineralizing fluids active in the Katangan basin. Thus, the age of the copper mineralisation associated with fractures is interpreted to correlate with the timing of the folding event that occurred during the Lufilian orogeny between 540-550Ma.