Ruby Mineralization in Southwest Madagascar

Gem-variety of red corundum (i.e. ruby) is produced in the Ejeda-Fotadrevo area, in southwestern Madagascar. The primary ruby deposits are closely associated with basic/ultrabasic complexes within the high grade metamorphic terranes of the Precambrian Vohibory unit. Ruby is recovered from amphibolite and anorthosite veins within these complexes. Petrographic data and P-T estimates indicate that the ruby-bearing rocks crystallized under granulites facies conditions of 750–850°C and 9–11.5kbar, in accordance with the conditions recorded from the surrounding granulites. The Malagasy ruby deposits present numerous similarities with East African deposits, especially Tanzanian, indicating similar geological context of ruby mineralization and suggesting that ruby formation in both these areas resulted from a same mineralizing event when Madagascar was still adjacent to East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania) in the Gondwanaland assembly at the end of Proterozoic times.