The geology of Togo is largely of gneisses and granitic rocks of

Proterozoic The Proterozoic () is a geological eon spanning the time interval from 2500 to 538.8million years ago. It is the most recent part of the Precambrian "supereon". It is also the longest eon of the Earth's geologic time scale, and it is subdivided ...

age in the central and southern part of the country. These are overlain in the coastal zone by Cretaceous and

Cenozoic The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configura ...

sediments. The northern part of the country has a

basement A basement or cellar is one or more floors of a building that are completely or partly below the ground floor. It generally is used as a utility space for a building, where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, ...

of Neoproterozoic metamorphic rocks and Paleoproterozoic granite. The south of the country is covered in sedimentary basins, covering 3,300 km.² of land. The West African Craton is made up of crystalline structures, ranging in age from the Neoarchean to the Paleoproterozoic age. The North-Dapaong zone, which is located in the West African Craton, migmatites, gneisses,

amphibolite Amphibolite () is a metamorphic rock that contains amphibole, especially hornblende and actinolite, as well as plagioclase feldspar, but with little or no quartz. It is typically dark-colored and dense, with a weakly foliated or schistose (flaky ...

s, granodiorites and granites are commonly found. The Neoproterozoic

Volta Basin Ghana is a West African country in Africa, along the Gulf of Guinea. Ghana encompasses plains, low hills, rivers, Lake Volta, the world's largest artificial lake, Dodi Island and Bobowasi Island on the south Atlantic Ocean coast of Ghana. Gh ...

contains sedimentary formations on the Birrimian bedrocks. These sedimentary formations are divided into two groups: an intra-tillite group and a supra-tillite group.

Economic geology

Togo mines gold, diamonds, and phosphate rock, with the largest of these being phosphate rock. The phosphate rock is found Eocene deposits at the coastal basin. In addition to those easy to exploit locations, there are also hardened Neoproterozoic which have not been exploited. The country is Africa's sixth highest producer of phosphate rock. Diamonds and gold are extracted on the artisanal level, and is Africa's sixth largest gold producer. The diamonds are found in alluvial formations in rivers. Exploration activities unveiled the possibility of mining in the future: bauxite, gypsum, iron ore, manganese, marble, rutile, zinc, uranium, and lithic metals. Togo does not have a petroleum sector.

References

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