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Geology and mineral resources of the Lower Benue Trough, Nigeria

Fatoye F. B. and Gideon Y. B.

The Lower Benue Trough is the southern portion of the Benue Trough that is believed to have originated as a failed arm of an aulacogen at the time of the opening of the South Atlantic Oceans during the separation of the African plate and the South American plate. The geology of Lower Benue Trough is associated with the tectonic activities that were recorded during the Cenomanian. These tectonic activities produced an uplift that had a NE-SW trend. This gave way to the tectonic activities that took place in Santonian times, which resulted in the folding and uplifting of the Abakaliki Sector of the Trough and the subsidence of Anambra Platform. The latter event led to the formation of the Anambra Basin, which constituted a major depocentre of clastic sediments and deltaic sequences. The erosion of the Abakaliki uplifted and folded belts resulted in the development of a Proto-Niger Delta sequence consisting of Enugu/Nkporo, Mamu, Ajali and Nsukka Formations. This was followed by a regression that started during the Eocene and continued to the present day with the deposition of the sediments of the Tertiary Niger Delta. The Lower Benue Trough like other Sedimentary Basins in Nigeria is found to be endowed with mineral resources. Over twenty mineral resources have so far been reported in the Trough by the Geological Survey of Nigeria Agency and these include; coal, lead-zinc, barytes, limestone, clay, gypsum, phosphate, glass sand, fluorspar, salt, ironstone, uranium, sulphur, graphite, cassiterite, manganese, mica and silver.