Volume 2, Issue 4, July - December, 2025

Geological and Petrographic Evaluation of the Rocks in Zaranda Area, Sheet 149 NW Northeastern Nigeria

Umar Lawan Dalorima¹, Ahmed Isah Haruna², Hamman Ishaku Kamale^3♦, Abubakar Sadiq Maigari², Timorthy Peter Bata², Abdulmajid Isa Jibrin², Adamu Mukhtar Hassan²

¹Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria
²Department of Applied Geology, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi, Nigeria
³Department of Geology, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria

^♦Corresponding Author
Hamman Ishaku Kamale, Department of Geology, University of Maiduguri, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

The Zaranda area (Sheet 149 NW, Bauchi) lies on the eastern flank of the Nigerian YoungerGranite Province and exhibits a complex lithological assemblage comprising migmatite, granodiorite, pegmatite, biotite granite, and rhyolite. Field geological mapping and petrographic analysis of 75 representative samples reveal that stromatic metatexite, banded orthogneiss, diatexite and nebulite form the predominant basement rocks. Petrographically, the migmatites are characterized by quartz with undulous extinction, K-feldspar, plagioclase with albite twinning, and mafic minerals such as biotite, chlorite, orthopyroxene and sillimanite, indicative of medium to highgrade metamorphism. Banded orthogneiss is typified by alternating felsic and mafic mineral bands and mineralogically consists of clinopyroxene and sillimanite. The upgraded schist has abundant muscovite and biotite minerals, along with cordierite and pyroxene implying formation under high temperature metamorphic conditions. Pegmatites, occurring as dykes, sills and lodes, contain microcline, quartz, myrmekitic texture, and sericitization halos, with some hosting lithium-bearing spodumene and quartz veins suggestive of tantalum-tin mineralization. The biotite granite, forming ring dyke around Zaranda Hill, and cross-cutting rhyolite dykes reflect anorogenic magmatism linked to Mesozoic extensional tectonics. These geological and petrographic features collectively point to a polyphase tectonomagmatic evolution and highlight the rare-metal mineralization potential of the Zaranda Complex.

Keywords: Zaranda, Younger Granite, Migmatite, Pegmatite, Petrography, Raremetal mineralization, Nigeria

Discovery Nature, 2025, 2(4), e13dn3147

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.54905/disssi.v2i4.e13dn3147

Published: 18 November 2025