Geology of Mauritania ore. A Neoproterozoic carbonate unit, part of a synformal nappe overturned in the Paleozoic, now forms a major copper deposit 250 kilometers northeast of Nouakchott in the Mauritanides Belt. The one kilometer, 250 meter wide deposit spans the West and East Moghrein Guelb hills. Forty meters below the deposit is a secondary deposit of cuprite, azurite, malachite and tenorite, with an additional 2.25% copper, some gold and sulfide mineralization including cubanite, chalcopyrite, pyrrohitite and aresnopyrite. In the 2000s, mining at the site had mostly ceased except for gold mining in the tailings pile. Gypsum is extracted from the N'Drahamcha quarry,
Ore shoot for hundreds or thousands of feet horizontally and vertically. Such a structure could contain an area of enhanced metal content extending horizontally and vertically. This would be termed an "ore shoot." The existence of the ore shoot could be recognized visually in a tunnel or "drift" excavated along the structure, or by the assaying of rock samples cut from the walls and roof of the tunnel. Ore shoot In mining and geology, an ore shoot is a long seam of mineral or metal bearing rock that can be profitable to extract. The term may have originated in the 17th and