From Feasibily Study 2015 - Under Geology link Deposit Style &...

From Feasibily Study 2015 - Under Geology link
Deposit Style & Source of Graphite and Vanadium


The Balama deposits can be classified as a cross between Disseminated and Bedded style. Disseminated deposits are characteristically schists or gneisses with graphite dispersed throughout. The graphite forms as a result of the metamorphism (heat and pressure) of organic material within the rock. The graphite at Balama also shows a bedded character. However, in a Bedded style deposit the graphite precursor is coal.
The Disseminated style deposits are largely much older than the oldest known coal deposits. In the case of Balama the precursor to the graphite is certainly biogenic kerogen basically organic/carbonaceous matter, formed from the deposition of vast quantities of plankton) and this is supported by the strong vanadium correlation and the “bedded” nature of the deposit.
he origin of the vanadium can also be traced back to plankton. Plankton are rich in chlorophyll, which contain porphyrins. Porphyrins are crucial to photosynthesis, a process that plankton rely on to survive. These porphyrins are adept at adsorbing vanadium ions from sea water. Over time, and while the aquatic basin remained open, vanadium was accumulated by the plankton. Once the basin was closed to recirculating seawater and the plankton died, the vanadium becomes preserved under anoxic conditions (an absence or deficiency of oxygen).
After deposition of the plankton and many millions of years of burial, metamorphism and deformation, the carbon and vanadium derived from the plankton was transformed into arguably the biggest deposit of graphite and one of the largest resources of vanadium.