Raymond’s Geology Blog
August 3, 2026

Geology and Mineral Resources – Senegal

Introduction

Figure 1 – Senegal
Credit: Mapsland, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Licence

A former French colony, the Republic of Senegal is a country of 18,384,660 people in West Africa. The country has an area of 196,722 square kilometres and borders on: the Atlantic Ocean, to the west; Mauritania, to the north; Mali, to the east; Guinea, to the southeast; and Guinea-Bissau, to the southwest. Senegal also completely surrounds The Gambia by land.

Senegal is a relatively poor country with a per capita GDP (PPP) of $5,498 and a low Human Development Index of 0.530.The economy of Senegal is a developing one dominated by mining, construction, and tourism. Fishing and agriculture are the main sources of employment in much of the country. In 2024, the top exports of Senegal were refined and crude petroleum, gold, phosphoric acid, and peanuts. The top destinations for exports were Mali, China, India, Switzerland, and Spain. In 2024, the top imports of Senegal were refined petroleum, crude petroleum, rice, automobiles, and malt extract. The top origins of imports were China, France, Russia, India, and the United Arab Emirates.

For more details on Senegal, check out the Wikipedia and Grokipedia articles on the country.

Geology

Figure 2 – Interactive Geology Map of Senegal
Credit: Macrostrat, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license

Senegal sits on the the African Tectonic Plate, specifically the West African Craton. The basement rocks that underlie most of Senegal and which outcrop in the southeast of the country include two main groups: those of the Birimian Group and those of the Hercynian-Panafrican Mobile/Orogenic belt.

The Birimian Group are the oldest rocks in Senegal. were formed during the Archean and Proterozoic eons. The Birimian Group includes the Mako Birimian greenstone belt and several granite intrusions.

The Mako Birimian greenstone belt contains a variety of rocks including:

The rocks of the Hercynian-Panafrican Mobile/Orogenic belt were formed during the Pan African Orogeny during the Neoproterozoic. Also called the Mauritanide Belt, the predominate lithologies are schists and quartzite.

Overlying the basement rocks are the Phanerozoic aged sedimentary rocks of the Senegal Basin, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 – Geologic Column of Senegal Basin
Credit: Figure 4 in Brownfield & Charpentier, 2003,
USGS Bulletin Bulletin 2207–A, public domain

The lower Paleozoic aged formations in the Senegal formations were laid down in a sedimentary basin on the ancient Gondwana Supercontinent, formed during the previous Pan-African Orogeny. The breakup of Gondwana began with rifting during the Triassic Period, creating conditions for the deposition of lacustrine deposits followed by evaporites - salt and anhydrite.

As the Atlantic Ocean opened in the Jurassic Period the sedimentary deposition swung between two regimes:

Deposition in the Senegal Basin continued until the Miocene Epoch of the Neogene Period.

Associated with the orogeny that opened the Atlantic are various volcanic rocks deposited during the Quaternary Period. Found in the Mamelles Hills, Mermoz and Fann Sectors of western Senegal, the lithologies include tuff, dolerite, basanite, and volcanic breccia.

Paleontology

Only a few fossils have been found in Senegal; here are a couple of examples:

Saloumia gorodiskii

Saloumia was a genus of large mammals in the order Proboscidea. The genus is only known from fossil teeth and it is probably related to Moeritherium.

Figure 4 – Moeritherium
Credit: Momotarou2012, Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

In 2020, a team (R. Tabuce, R. Sarr, S. Adnet, R. Lebrun, F. Lihoreau, J. E. Martin, B. Sambou, M. Thiam, and L. Hautier) published a paper on fossils of Saloumia gorodiskii. They found the fossils in shallow marine deposits near the village of M’Bodione Dadere in west central Senegal. The deposits were dated from the Lutetian Stage of the Eocene Epoch.

Cylindracanthus

Figure 5 - Cylindracanthus
Credit: Maurice Leriche, public domain

Another fossil from the Eocene found in Senegal was Cylindracanthus. A marine ray-finned fish, fossils of Cylindracanthus have been found throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Africa in rocks dating from the Late Cretaceous to the Eocene. In 1936,Maurice Lericheidentified a species, Cylindracanthus senegalensis, from fossils found in Senegal.

Mineral Resources

Figure 6 – Senegalite-Turquoise
Credit: Robert M. Lavinsky, Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

According to the USGS summary on Senegal:

  • In 2024, Senegal was the world's seventh-ranked producer of ilmenite(3.4% of global production) and zircon (4.0% of global production)

  • Senegal was also an important producer of phosphate rock (1.2% of world production).

  • Other mineral commodities produced in Senegal included cement and cement clinker, various clays, gold, gravel, refined lead, leucoxene, rutile, and refined silver.

  • Also mentioned in the USGS Minerals Yearbook is the recent development of the offshore Sangomar Oilfield.

Note: ilmenite, rutile and leucoxene are all titanium ore. Most of these minerals were recovered from the Grande Côte Mineral Sands Mine along the Atlantic Coast. In February 2026, the operator, Eramet Grande Côte, suspended operations at the mine following a fire. There have also been environmental concerns with the mine and local opposition to the development.

The most recent USGS mineral production statistics for Senegal are here. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

Gold Mining

Figure 7 - Minerogenic map for gold of the Kedougou Keniaba Inlier
Credit: Figure 3 in Bocar et al, 2025, Creative CommonsAttribution 4.0 International license

Many, is not most, of the gold deposits in Senegal are located in the Kédougou–Kéniéba Inlierof the Birimian Group. Gold deposits within the Kédougou–Kéniéba Inlierare considered to be orogenic, specifically mesothermal ore deposits. These are structurally controlled deposits originating in hydrothermal venting at tectonic rift zonesthat lead to the development of greenstone belts.

The largest gold mining operation in Senegal is the Sabodala-Massawa Mine operated by Endeavour Mining. 274,000 troy ounces of gold were produced in 2025. According to the NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Sabodala-Massawa Mine (2026):

Besides the Technical Report, another good source of further reading on the Sabodala-Massawa Mine is:

  • S.Y. Bocar, C. Moustapha, W. Diouf, and I. Dia, 2025, Identification of the high gold-potential zones: A case study of the Sabodala gold mine, Senegal, by the integration of the geostatistical and remote sensing tools, Scientific African, Volume 30, 2025, e03096, ISSN 2468-2276, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sciaf.2025.e03096.

Senegal Basin Oil Province


Figure 8 – Senegal Basin Province
Credit: USGS Fact Sheet 2022-3080, public domain

Senegal sits next to a large offshore sedimentary basin, the Senegal Basin, that we looked at in the section of the geology of the country. In 2021, the USGS published Assessment of Undiscovered Conventional Oil and Gas Resources of the Senegal Basin Province of Northwest Africa, 2021. The assessment indicated that undiscovered conventional oil, gas, and natural gas liquid (NGL) resources in the basin are:

  • 13.9 billion barrels of oil;

  • 193.7 trillion cubic feet of gas; and

  • 3.1 billion barrels of natural gas liquids.

Figure 9 – Sangomar Oil Field
Credit: Engineers’ Forum

Currently, there is one oilfield development offshore Senegal, the Sangomar Oil Field. Located 85 km offshore, production began in 2024 and it produced 17.9 million barrels of crude in the first six months of 2026. The production zone is in Cretaceous rocks associated with turbidite flows.

Figure 10 links to an interactive mineral occurrence map of Senegal from Mindat.org.

Figure 10 – Mineral Occurrence Map of Senegal
Credit: Mindat.org

Summary

Figure 11 – La Rose, Senegal
Credit: Issiaga0, Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International license

That wraps up this quick look at Senegal. It is probably a good bet for future mineral development, especially in offshore oil. The gold plays are also interesting and could attract people familiar with gold mineralization in greenstone belts. There could be many opportunities for geoscientists in Senegal.

At a geopolitical level, the country has succeeded, so far, in maintaining a stable democratic government. I think that we can be optimistic for their future.

Standard Caveat

J. Robert Oppenheimer on freedom and scientific inquiry

The purpose of my weblog postings is to spark people's curiosity in geology. Don't entirely believe me until you've done your own research and checked the evidence. If I have sparked your curiosity in the subject of this posting, follow up with some of the links provided here. If you want to, go out into the field and examine some rocks on your own with the help of a good field guide. Follow the evidence and make up your own mind.

In science, the only authority is the evidence.