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The Geology and Mineral Resources of Mozambique. Siegfried Lächelt. Pp. 515 Direcção Nacional de Geologia Moçambique, The Publications Shop, Council for Geoscience, Private Bag X112, Pretoria 0001, Republic of South Africa. 2004. Price US$40.00.

Recent years have seen a substantial increase in studies of the Proterozoic tectonic framework of eastern Africa, reflecting a growing appreciation of the importance of this region for understanding the formation of Gondwana at the end of the Proterozoic and the dawn of the Phanerozoic (Yoshida et al., 2003). The Mozambique belt, first named by Holmes (1951), underlies much of the country of Mozambique and forms the southern part of a network of Neoproterozoic-early Paleozoic (Pan-African) orogenic belts along the eastern margin of Africa, which is now generally referred to as the East African orogen (Stern, 1994). Although Mozambique occupies an important geographic position within the East African orogen, geologic studies there have been seriously hampered by a number of factors, including a long period of civil war (1977–1992), which followed the independence of Mozambique from Portugal in 1975. As a result, up-to-date and accessible geologic information for Mozambique has been very limited. Thus, the publication of a new book on the geology and mineral resources of Mozambique is welcome news. Unfortunately, this book, while providing reference to the main geologic features and mineral resources of Mozambique, is mainly a repetitive catalogue of stratigraphic terminology and mineral occurrences, based mostly on outdated sources and concepts, and lacking meaningful integration and synthesis. Those seeking to understand Mozambique’s geology and mineral resources in the context of the current understandings of the East African orogen and ore deposit models will not find it here.

The book is presented as a contribution toward the Mineral Resources . . . [Full Text of this Article]