Integrated Interpretation Paper 28 The West African Exploration Initiative (WAXI): 10 Years of Integrated Research for Development Jessell, M.W. [1, 2] and the WAXI Team _________________________ 1. Centre for Exploration Targeting, School of Earth Sciences, the University of Western Australia, WA, Australia 2. Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Laboratoire Géosciences Environnement Toulouse, Toulouse, France ABSTRACT The eleven-year AMIRA International Project P934 'West African Exploration Initiative' (WAXI), now in its third phase, has the dual aims of scientific research focused on increasing our understanding of the tectonic and regolith settings of ore deposits, and the development of the research and training capacity of West African geological surveys and universities. We describe the drivers for the WAXI initiative, as well as key research and capacity building outcomes. The WAXI project is a public-private partnership that has brought together seventy of the principal stakeholders in the domain of mineral exploration in West Africa: • The government surveys and departments of mines of eleven West African states (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Togo). • Seven West and South African universities (from Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Senegal and South Africa). • Thirty-four international mining companies. • Researchers from twelve European and Australian research institutions. • AMIRA International, an independent association of minerals companies that develops, brokers and facilitates collaborative research projects. • NGOs based in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Luxembourg. • A professional training centre based in Burkina Faso. • National research and aid agencies in South Africa, France and Australia. This initiative demonstrates the significant research and development achievements that can be made when the different stakeholders in the minerals sector (industry, academia, government and non-government organizations) work together to achieve their diverse goals. The WAXI project in numbers: 12 countries. 73 partners over 11 years. 76 Postdoc, PhD, Masters and Honours Projects, half of them African. 76 International Publications. 650 GB exploration geoscience databases. 1800 person-days of technical training in West Africa. 650,000 km2 of geophysically constrained geological mapping. INTRODUCTION (Milési et al., 1992; Markwitz et al., 2016). As early as 1916, systematic regional geological mapping was being carried out by The West African Craton (WAC) consists of two Archean nuclei Henry Hubert, a French Government official working in what in the north-western and south-western parts of the craton was then French West Africa (Hubert, 1934). A period of data juxtaposed against an array of Paleoproterozoic domains made acquisition by colonial and post-colonial geological surveys up of greenstone belts, sedimentary basins, domains of extensive ensued, followed by collaborations funded by transnational granitoid-TTG plutons and large shear zones, which are overlain agencies (principally the UN, the World Bank, and the European by Meso- and Neoproterozoic and younger sedimentary basins Union), which enabled regional maps and geophysical surveys (Bessoles, 1977; Feybesse et al., 1989; Feybesse and Milési, to be compiled for much of the craton. Building on this 1994; Kouamelan et al., 1997; Caby et al., 2000; Hirdes et al., information, the WAC has seen a major increase in exploration 1992). The region has a thousand-year history of gold mining, and mining activity over the last 10 years, which in turn has and numerous gold deposits are shown in the 1934 Gold Coast incited renewed research interest in the tectonics and Geological Survey map of what is now southern Ghana (Junner, metallogenesis of the highly prospective Paleoproterozoic 1934). The WAC is typically referred to as a gold province, Birimian Terrane. although it also hosts world-class iron ore and bauxite deposits In “Proceedings of Exploration 17: Sixth Decennial International Conference on Mineral Exploration” edited by V. Tschirhart and M.D. Thomas, 2017, p. 399–412 400 Integrated Interpretation Figure 1: The 73 WAXI partners over the 10-year life of the project. Map shows current partner countries, geology modified from the Geological Survey of Canada 1:35 M map of the world (Chorlton, 2007). Financial sponsors: ARC Linkage Program, Acacia Mining plc, Ampella, Anglogold Ashanti, AusAID, Avocet, Azumah Resources, BHP Billiton, Barrick, Castle Peak, Drake Resources, First Quantum Minerals Ltd, Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg, GoldenStar, Goldfields, Gryphon Minerals Ltd, IAMGOLD Corp., IRD, Kinross, Newcrest Mining Limited, Newgenco Pty Ltd, Newmont Ghana Gold Limited, Orezone, Perseus Mining Limited, Qatar Mining, Randgold Resources, Redback, Resolute Mining Limited, Rio Tinto Mining and Exploration Ltd, Riverstone, SEMAFO, Sarama Resources, Teck, Toro Gold Limited, Vale, Volta Resources, Votorantim. Sponsors in kind: Bureau des Mines et de la Géologie du Burkina, Direction Générale des Mines et de la Géologie du Togo, Direction National de la Géologie République de Guinée, Direction Nationale de la Géologie et des Mines - Mali, Direction de la Géologie Ministère des Mines et du Développement Niger, Direction des Mines et de la Géologie Senegal, Geological Survey Department - Ghana, Ghana Minerals Commission, Mines and Energy - Liberia, Ministère de l'Industrie et des Mines - République de Côte d'Ivoire, Ministry of Land, National Minerals Agency of Sierra Leone, OMRG l'Office Mauritanien de Recherches Géologiques. Research Partners: BRGM, CNRS-INSU (Institut National des Sciences de I'Univers), Centre for Exploration Targeting - University of Western Australia, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, GET Geosciences Environnement Toulouse, Geological Survey of the Czech Republic, Institut National Polytechnique Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), James Cook University., Macquarie University, Monash University, Nancy Université, Queensland University of Technology, TUT Tshwane University of Technology, Teng Tuuma Geoservices (TTGEO), Université de Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD), Université de Cocody-Abidjan, University of Ghana, University of Liberia, University of Montpellier, University of Ouagadougou, University of the Witwatersrand, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Université de Toulouse, Université des Sciences des Techniques et des Technologies de Bamako (USTTB). Capacity building partners: Kalabash Ghana, L’Association Le Soleil dans la Main, SOS-Sahel. The AMIRA International P934 West African Exploration from March 2010 until July 2013 (with 20 industry and Initiative (WAXI) is a collaboration between the principal actors government sponsors) and the third phase started in September in the large-scale minerals sector of West Africa (Figure 1). The 2014 and will run until August 2018 (with 13 industry sponsors first (pilot) phase of the project ran from September 2006 to to date). The overall aim of WAXI is to enhance the exploration March 2008 (with 13 industry sponsors), the second phase ran potential of the West African Craton (WAC) through an Jessell, M.W., et al. The West African Exploration Initiative (WAXI) 401 integrated program of research and data gathering into its tectonics, metallogenesis and landform evolution of the West 'anatomy', and to augment the capacity of local institutions to African Craton. In parallel, the project aims to support the undertake this form of work. development of geoscience capabilities in the short, medium and long term. Immediate support for company staff improves their In the following sections, we summarize the principal research capacity to undertake exploration in the region; training and capacity building outcomes of the project, which for ten geological survey staff improves their ability to provide years has supported the minerals industry via the acquisition and geoscience data to end users, and scholarships and access to synthesis of exploration data, and supported West African equipment for graduate students prepares them for work in all institutions in the training of geoscientists and the management sectors of minerals geoscience, and trains the next generation of of exploration-focused geoscience data. This project has resulted university lecturers. in positive outcomes for all partners, and the lessons learned in this project help provide an improved model for collaborative research in developing countries. THE NEED FOR INTEGRATED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPEMNT The Archean and Paleoproterozoic West African Craton extends over 2.5 million square kilometres, and is hosted by 13 countries that use three administrative languages1. Every country in the region shares at least one border with a country that uses a different administrative language. This has resulted in a fragmentation of effort and is a barrier to integrated research, as data are held by each country in different languages and formats, and with very heterogeneous levels of detail. Publically available syntheses are principally limited to harmonized regional-scale maps (e.g., Milési et al., 2004). The Paleoproterozoic granite-greenstone terranes represent one of the world’s most important gold provinces, with output increasing from approximately 50 t/year to 220 t/year between 1993 and 2103 (Goldfarb et al., 2017), and this period saw some countries, such