Magnetic Concentration of Iron in Lateritic Soils from Kamahuha, Murang’a County, in Kenya using Carbon Monoxide Generated In-Situ

Kenya has several geologically-documented iron ore deposits, many of them known even during the period the country was a British colony[1]. For example, there is a large lateritic deposit in Lela, West of Kisumu which is estimated to contain at least 2.7x107 million cubic metres of laterites [1]. In a previous study, it has been shown that laterites are fairly widely spread all over the country and that they contain 15-45% iron depending on source. In these laterites, iron is present predominantly as the minerals goethite and haematite [2]. During that study, a laterite sample collected from Lela showed that it contained an average of 32% iron. It is, therefore, reasonable, to treat the Lela deposit as a typical iron ore deposit since materials containing 25-68% iron are treated as iron ores [2]. In his Geological Report published in 1952, reference [1], reported that l