Petrochemical and physical characterizations of detrital rutiles from Balikumbat area, Cameroon: Implication for Titanium exploration

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Balikumbat area is located within the Mount Bamenda, Cameroon. The area hosts a significant quantity of undocumented coarse-grained detrital rutiles, and It is made-up of rhyolites, granites, and banded gneisses. The rutiles grains are zoned, the core is yellowish-brown and composed mainly of pure TiO2 (TiO2>98 wt. % and FeO<0.4 wt. %) while the dark rims have nearly similar moderate TiO2 and FeO contents (TiO2≈52 wt. % and FeO≈44 wt. %). The zoning is due to supergene reduction of titanium at grain peripheries. The other oxides show low concentrations. The rutile-specific gravity shows a narrow range from 3.90 to 5.98 and a wide variety of size ranges (9–53 mm length and 7–29 mm width). The most abundant forms of studied rutiles are prismatic, angular, and sub-rounded with mainly striated, pitted, and mildly cracked surfaces. The studied coarse-grained detrital rutiles are positively strongly skewed (Sk =+0.92) and extremely leptokurtic (Kt = 4.19) indicating short distant transportation from the primary source via a high-energy environment. Based on this work, Balikumbat area is an important prospect for Titanium ores, where exploration for secondary Ti-deposits is highly recommended.