On March 11, 2021, Claude Nambaje defended his PhD thesis entitled: “Tectonic evolution and tin mineralisation of the Karagwe–Ankole Belt, Rwanda”; a PhD project co-supervised between the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Australian National University (ANU). This PhD defense was held online at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
His Ph.D. work has addressed the geological evolution and tin mineralisation of the Rwanda region of the Karagwe–Ankole Belt (KAB) situated in East-Central Africa. The study has an international interest and focuses mainly on the geological, petrological, and geochronological studies with a secondary focus on geochemical and isotope studies. Apart from the geological point of view the candidate also produced results on the tin beneficiation using a new approach.
During the study, the candidate carried out a detailed fieldwork in Rwanda, followed by series of analytical works which he did at IISc, ANU, and Niigata University (Japan). Major findings/contributions that could be pointed out from his work, with Joint PhD supervision between IISc and ANU, can be:
- The timing of tin mineralisation directly by developing a new method of SIMS U-Pb dating of the cassiterite with sub-ppm U contents.
- Discovered and reported Archaean crust from Rwanda, where the basement was previously thought to be Paleoproterozoic.
- Reported granulite facies metamorphism from Rwanda.
- Developed and reported advancements in tin beneficiation method.
The candidate acknowledges the joint PhD supervision between the IISc and ANU, and the student exchange programme between IISc and Niigata University which have played an important role for his PhD goal achievements.
Many congratulations to Dr. Claude Nambaje, Prof. Sajeev Krishnan (PhD supervisor at IISc) and Prof. Ian S. Williams (PhD Co-supervisor at ANU) on this success!