Ngualla

[2] Over a north-south trending central ridge and an area of the north-western side of the complex carbonatite outcrops are found, surrounded by red soil.

The name 'Ngualla' comes from the Swahili word for 'bald head', which reflects the appearance of a large piece of the mostly bare land in which there is no habitation, agriculture and very little wild life.

These alluvials are the result of erosion, transportation and deposition from the weathered bedrock mineralisation in the southern rare earth zone.

Mineralogical studies have shown that bastnasite and synchysite are the main rare earth minerals and occur within a baryte – iron oxide hydroxide lithology in the weathered zone and a carbonate rich lithology with baryte in fresh carbonatite.

[7] In December 2012, Peak Resources announced - as part of their planned beneficiation process of the Ngualla deposit - that results had shown an intimate association between iron oxide and rare earth minerals (hematite and bastnaesite).