Catalog Search Guide
You can search our catalog using different mineral attributes. For example, you can search by color such as green, yellow or purple, or by chemical elements such as uranium, calcium or iron, or by mineral groups such as phosphate, silicate or carbonate. You can also filter by crystal habit like crystal, geode or crystal on matrix, by specimen size such as thumbnail, small, medium or cabinet, and by features such as radioactive or fluorescent minerals.
Gabon
Gabon, straddling the northwestern edge of the ancient Congo Craton, is one of Africa's most geologically significant mineral-producing countries, best known among collectors for its extraordinary manganese deposits. The Moanda district in Haut-Ogooué Province, mined by COMILOG since the 1950s, sits within the Paleoproterozoic Francevillian Basin and ranks among the largest manganese deposits in Africa, yielding fine specimens of pyrolusite, manganite, psilomelane, hausmannite, cryptomelane, nsutite, and secondary rhodochrosite.
Nearby, the historic Mounana and Oklo uranium mines, worked by COMUF until 1999, produced a remarkable uranium mineral suite tied to the world-famous Oklo natural nuclear reactor zones, including uraninite, coffinite, and rare secondary uranyl species prized by systematic and radioactive-mineral collectors alike. Gabon's varied geology also hosts barite near Dourekiki, talc, niobium-phosphate mineralization at the Mabounie carbonatite complex, and iron ore at Belinga.
Because Gabonese material rarely reaches Western markets and much of the country remains geologically underexplored, well-labeled specimens from Moanda, Mounana, and Oklo are genuinely scarce outside a handful of old French mining-era collections — making them a distinctive addition for collectors of African manganese and uranium minerals seeking real locality rarity.
