Onimisi M., Obaje N. G. and Daniel A.
Geochemical investigations of the marble deposit in Itobe, Kogi state, central Nigeria shows that the two outcropping masses (mass I and mass II) of the marble deposit are calcitic in composition. The two masses of the marble deposit may have been deposited in shallow structural basins, and mass I with a much higher MgO content (10.4%) was deposited in a much deeper basin than mass II with a much lower MgO content (0.74%). The Mg in the marble must have been co-precipitated with the Ca from hyper-saline waters under anoxic conditions with microfauna and flora playing a vital role. The Itobe marble, as with other metamorphic carbonate rocks, occur commonly within continental environments along which crustal distension has occurred. The association of the marble deposit with quartzite, quartz schist, gneissic granite, pegmatite and quartz veins suggests deposition in a rift environment of rapid subsidence with contemparenous magmatism in the basins formed, followed by closure which led to the deformation of the sediments
