A group of samples from the Tundulu and Songwe
carbonatite complexes in Malawi, supplied by Dr.
Appleton, have been studied by various mineralogical
techniques. The aim was to characterise them and assess
their Usefulness as direct application fertilizers and
sources of rare earth metals. A brief summary 9f the
results obtained so far is given here and a full report
will be made when the work is complete.
Polished thin sections were made from 17 samples.
These were examined on the optical microscope and 7 were
analysed on the electron microprobe. This examination
showed that there were three main rock types, apatite
rocks, ferruginous carbonatites and calcite
carbonatites(sovites) and the following report discusses
them under theses broad headings
