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,
Broken Hill ore deposit of the main lode. The ore often consists up to 100% lead-zinc sulfides, with little or no pyrite, chalcopyrite or gangue sulfides. The footwall to the mineralization is a psammopelite gneiss, consisting of feldspar, quartz, garnet, biotite and amphibole, with a pelite gneiss on the hanging wall. The footwall gneiss contains anomalous mineral chemistries including a rare lead-rich feldspar and manganese-rich garnet chemistries. Ore is predominantly hosted at this stratigraphic break, but much of the ore body is structurally remobilised or offset into both the hangingwall and footwall, and the geometry of the ore deposit is particularly complex on the