Skip to content
LITHOEN

Deposit

Kipushi

A carbonate-hosted zinc-copper deposit in Haut-Katanga, Democratic Republic of the Congo, unusual enough that the USGS sediment-hosted classification names a whole class after it.

World map with twelve small symbols — six filled dark-red circles for porphyry copper deposits in the Andes, western North America, New Guinea and Mongolia, and six open circles with dark outlines for sediment-hosted zinc-lead deposits and one district in North America, Ireland and central Africa — over faint grey plate outlines and a pale coastline.
The twelve records — eleven deposits and one mineral district — for which Lithoen holds a sourced coordinate, over faint plate outlines. Every symbol is the same size: a famous deposit does not get a bigger dot, because symbol size would have to encode a metric and the only metrics available are compiler totals with different definitions in the two databases. Thirteen further deposits in this corpus have no sourced coordinate and do not appear here at all. There is no shading, no interpolation and no density surface. This is a map of records held, and where the symbols cluster is where the compilations looked.

Figure by Lithoen. Plate model PB2002 from Bird (2003), doi:10.1029/2001GC000252; GIS conversion by Hugo Ahlenius, Nordpil, ODC-By 1.0. Made with Natural Earth. Singer, D.A., Berger, V.I., and Moring, B.C., 2008, Porphyry copper deposits of the world: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2008-1155, doi:10.3133/ofr20081155. Singer, D.A., Berger, V.I., and Moring, B.C., 2009, Sediment-hosted zinc-lead deposits of the world: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2009-1252, doi:10.3133/ofr20091252. Underlying data remain under their own licences. · LITHOEN-ORIGINAL · Derivative: Generated from published Lithoen spatial records by scripts/generate-maps.ts; no coordinate was edited by hand. Deposit symbols are drawn at a fixed radius. No quantity is encoded in symbol size, because the tonnage figures available are compiler totals whose definitions differ between the two databases and are not comparable with one another.

Classification

recognition basis
authoritativeDatabase
realm
africa

What this record is, and who says so

Recognised on the basis of

Authoritative database

A curated deposit database published by a scientific institution, in which inclusion is itself a documented editorial decision with stated criteria.

A deposit is an occurrence of sufficient size and grade that it might, under the most favourable circumstances, be considered to have economic potential. Lithoen records that a named authority made that judgement. It is not a statement that anything here is recoverable, and it is not a resource or a reserve.

Commodities documented here

  • Copper (commodity)documented association

    The source documents the commodity in this deposit and states no economic role. Lithoen records the association and infers nothing about how it would be worked.

  • Silver (commodity)documented association

    The source documents the commodity in this deposit and states no economic role. Lithoen records the association and infers nothing about how it would be worked.

  • Zinc (commodity)documented association

    The source documents the commodity in this deposit and states no economic role. Lithoen records the association and infers nothing about how it would be worked.

Reported figures, and what each one is

A sample assay, a deposit average, a compiler total and a reported reserve are different quantities. Each figure below carries which one it is; none of them is a current resource or reserve.

68.9 Mt

Compiler total, for modelling

effective 2009-01-01

A sum assembled by a database compiler from production plus reserves plus resources at the lowest available cut-off, so that deposits can be compared in a grade-and-tonnage model. It is not a resource, not a reserve and not production; it is a modelling quantity, and the USGS databases Lithoen reads define their tonnage exactly this way.

The USGS sediment-hosted zinc-lead database gives Kipushi an ore tonnage of 68.9 million metric tons — a compiler total of production plus reserves plus resources at the lowest possible cut-off grade, assembled for grade-and-tonnage modelling and not a resource, a reserve or production.

1 wt%m Lead

Deposit average

effective 2009-01-01

An average grade attributed to a whole deposit by a compiler, over a tonnage defined by that compiler at a stated cut-off. Not a measurement of anything: a summary of an estimate.

The USGS sediment-hosted zinc-lead database gives Kipushi an average lead grade of 1 percent, over the tonnage the same record holds. A deposit-wide average compiled from the literature, not an assay.

12 wt%m Zinc

Deposit average

effective 2009-01-01

An average grade attributed to a whole deposit by a compiler, over a tonnage defined by that compiler at a stated cut-off. Not a measurement of anything: a summary of an estimate.

The USGS sediment-hosted zinc-lead database gives Kipushi an average zinc grade of 12 percent, over the tonnage the same record holds. A deposit-wide average compiled from the literature, not an assay.

The source records behind this

What one row of a published dataset was taken to mean, and why. The original record stays traceable after reconciliation.

  • Sediment-hosted zinc-lead deposits of the world (USGS OFR 2009-1252), record 196

    Named there
    Kipushi
    The source calls it
    deposit
    Lithoen reads it as
    deposit (stated)

    Read as the deposit the compilers named. Its class code is the only one in the dataset named after a single deposit, which the mapping records rather than smoothing away.

    Read and refused

    • deposit-type code "Kipushi" — Row 196 carries deptype "Kipushi". The enumerated codeset declares "Kipuchi". The two are almost certainly the same word, but Lithoen does not normalise a published codeset, so the row is ingested with the mismatch recorded rather than silently matched.
    • grade columns with a value of zero — In both USGS deposit databases a grade of zero means the value was unavailable, not that the grade is zero. Reading it as a measurement would publish a false number.
    • decimal-degree columns beyond the authored precision — The decimal-degree columns carry floating-point residue from the degrees-minutes-seconds columns that were actually authored. The point is emitted at the authored precision instead.

How this is mapped

One published representation of where Kipushi is. Each is one interpretation, by one identified source, at one scale — not the shape of the thing itself.

  • Representative point

    Point · 1 positionspreferred for publication

    A single position standing for something that is not a point. It exists so a feature can be shown on a map or listed by location, and it asserts NOTHING about extent. A representative point for a 2,000 km province is a label anchor, not a location.

    A representative point for Kipushi from the USGS sediment-hosted zinc-lead database. The compilers state that a location here "is intended to plot within the alteration zone of deposit which may be kilometers across" — so the point is inside a zone, not the centre of one and not a shaft. This row was authored in degrees, minutes and seconds, giving a position stated to about 30 m.

    Boundary certainty
    ApproximateThe position is known only within a distance much larger than the line width on any map that shows it. Drawing it thinner does not make it better known.
    Status of this geometry
    inferredThe status of the geometry, which need not match the status of what the entity’s claims assert.
    Dataset
    Sediment-hosted zinc-lead deposits of the world (USGS OFR 2009-1252)Singer, D.A., Berger, V.I., and Moring, B.C., 2009, Sediment-hosted zinc-lead deposits of the world: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2009-1252, doi:10.3133/ofr20091252.

    What was done to this geometry

    • By Lithoen — Rounded to 4 decimal places, the precision the compiler authored: this row was recorded in degrees, minutes and seconds, so the position is stated to about 30 m. The dataset's decimal-degree columns carry more digits, which are conversion residue rather than knowledge.
    • Before it reached Lithoen — All deposit locations were checked by the compilers against Google Earth imagery, and many differ substantially from previously published locations as a result.
    • Before it reached Lithoen — Named bodies within two kilometres were combined into one row by the compilers before Lithoen read it.

How this record is known

5
Settled consensus
Cited as the accepted position of the discipline.
1
Open questions
Sourced statements that the answer is not currently known.

6 of 6 claims on this page cite at least one registered source. Counts describe how each statement is known, not how likely it is to be true.

What Lithoen records

Each claim states how it is known and cites its evidence.

EstablishedDeposit-type code "Kipushi", not matching the enumerated codeset value "Kipuchi".

How a source classifies it

The USGS sediment-hosted zinc-lead database records Kipushi with deposit-type code "Kipushi" — the only code in that dataset named after a single deposit. The enumerated codeset in the same metadata declares the value as "Kipuchi", glossed only as "Kipuchi-type"; elsewhere in the metadata a value "Kipushi" is glossed as a "Kipushi-type volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit", which is a surprising description for a carbonate-hosted body. Lithoen records the code, records that it does not match the enumerated codeset as spelled, and resolves neither the spelling nor the classification.

  • model: USGS Open-File Report 2009-1252, deptype field.
  • source record: record 196
  • precision note: The mismatch is recorded on the source-record mapping as a refused field, so the ingestion did not silently normalise a published codeset to fit the data it validates.
  • assertion basis: SOURCE_CLASSIFICATION

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence 2 sources, single source

Evidence: Singer 2009 Primary authority

Established1 wt%m Lead

Reported for this deposit

The USGS sediment-hosted zinc-lead database gives Kipushi an average lead grade of 1 percent, over the tonnage the same record holds. A deposit-wide average compiled from the literature, not an assay.

  • scope: depositAverage
  • definition basis: The dataset’s attribute definitions; a value of zero there means unavailable, not zero.
  • source record: record 196
  • effective date: 2009-01-01
  • assertion basis: SOURCE_REPORTED

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence 3 sources, multiple sources, independence unknown

Evidence: Singer 2009 Primary authority; Singer 2008 Primary authority

EstablishedRecognised as a deposit by USGS Open-File Report 2009-1252, record 196.

How a source classifies it

Kipushi is recorded as a deposit because the USGS sediment-hosted zinc-lead database includes it as record 196. That compilation quotes the definition it works to — a mineral occurrence of sufficient size and grade that might, under the most favourable circumstances, be considered to have economic potential — so inclusion is a documented judgement by identified compilers against a stated criterion.

  • source record: dataset:usgs-sediment-hosted-zn-pb-deposits-of-the-world record 196
  • assertion basis: SOURCE_CLASSIFICATION

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence 3 sources, multiple sources, independence unknown

Evidence: Cox 1986 Primary authority; Singer 2009 Primary authority

Established68.9 Mt

Reported for this deposit

The USGS sediment-hosted zinc-lead database gives Kipushi an ore tonnage of 68.9 million metric tons — a compiler total of production plus reserves plus resources at the lowest possible cut-off grade, assembled for grade-and-tonnage modelling and not a resource, a reserve or production.

  • tonnage category: compilerTotalForModelling
  • definition basis: The dataset’s attribute definition for oreton, identical to the porphyry database’s.
  • source record: record 196
  • effective date: 2009-01-01
  • precision note: Effective at the 2009 publication of the database, and never to be described as current.
  • assertion basis: SOURCE_REPORTED

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence 2 sources, single source

Evidence: Singer 2008 Primary authority

Established12 wt%m Zinc

Reported for this deposit

The USGS sediment-hosted zinc-lead database gives Kipushi an average zinc grade of 12 percent, over the tonnage the same record holds. A deposit-wide average compiled from the literature, not an assay.

  • scope: depositAverage
  • definition basis: The dataset’s attribute definitions; a value of zero there means unavailable, not zero.
  • source record: record 196
  • effective date: 2009-01-01
  • assertion basis: SOURCE_REPORTED

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence 3 sources, multiple sources, independence unknown

Evidence: Singer 2009 Primary authority; Singer 2008 Primary authority

Open question

Derived by Lithoen

Lithoen records no mineral-system interpretation for Kipushi. The USGS sediment-hosted database gives it a class of its own — the only class in that dataset named after a single deposit — and the metadata glosses that class, in one place, as a volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit, which is a surprising description for a carbonate-hosted body and one Lithoen is not in a position to adjudicate. None of the six mineral systems in this corpus covers it, and forcing it into the Mississippi Valley-type system would assert exactly what the source declines to say.

  • precision note: An earlier version of this corpus did interpret Kipushi as a Mississippi Valley-type system, with a justification qualifier that said the source placed it in a separate class. The edge asserted the opposite of its own reason and has been removed.
  • assertion basis: LITHOEN_DERIVED

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence 2 sources, single source

Evidence: Singer 2009 Primary authority

In the knowledge graph

Record last updated 2026-09-07. Corrections follow the published corrections policy; superseded claims are retained, never silently edited.