The Panda Hill Carbonatite is an apatite and pyrochlore bearing sovite carbonatite located in the Mbeya District of Tanzania. The deposit was found in the mid-1950s by the then Geological Survey of Tanganyika (now Tanzania). Niobium ore occurs largely in pyrochlore bearing sovite (carbonatite composed largely of calcite) and dolmite-rich carbonatite.[1]
The deposit also contains lesser phosphate mineralisation associated with apatite.[2]
Panda Hill was first developed for niobium in the late 1950s and early 1960s by the then N. V. Billiton.[3] A pilot mill and small open pit mine operated from 1957 to 1960 that produced concentrate that was then shipped to the Netherlands for further processing.[4]
The deposit is currently under development by Cradle Resources[5] to mine niobium by open pit mining methods. The project has reported resources of 96 million tonnes of mineralisation at an average grade of 0.52% Nb2O5.[6] If successful the Panda Hill niobium deposit will be the first niobium mine in Africa.[7] [8]
The Panda Hill carbonatite is also notable as being the source location of the mineral pandaite - a hydrated barium-strontium pyrochlore associated with biotite-rich contact metamorphic rocks.[9] Jager et al. recommended the name pandaite after analysing rock samples from Panda Hill in 1958 with the following formula described: (Ba0.30Sr0.22Ca0.05Ce0.04Na0.03Fe0.02K0.01Th0.01)(Nb1.83Ta0.004Ti0.17)O5.61(H2O)0.80
Other later recorded occurrences include at Mt Kukisvumchorr in the Khibiny Massif (Kola Peninsula) in Northern Region, Russia;[10] and at the Mrima Hill niobium deposit in Kenya within a residuumconsisting mainly of goethite/limonite and gorceixite.[11]