Suriname: a Palimpsest of Two Billion Years

GLIAG essay, Geology, Minerals & Petroleum of Suriname, Revision 1.1 (7 November 2026). Every barrel of oil in the Golden Lane sits in sand that was once a mountain on the Guiana Shield. The essay follows two billion years of Suriname's geology in six acts: the Trans-Amazonian ocean floor and island arc (2.18–2.13 Ga), collision and orogenic gold (2.13–2.06 Ga), the Bakhuis ultrahigh-temperature granulites (2.07–2.05 Ga), the felsic flare-up (1.99–1.95 Ga), the Roraima sandstone and the quiet craton (1.87–1.0 Ga), and the opening of the Atlantic that built the Golden Lane turbidite fans. It links each map unit to its mineral system (gold at Rosebel, Merian and Overman; plateau and coastal bauxite; Cu–Ni–Cr, Li–Sn–Ta–Be and Nb–REE occurrences; Tambaredjo heavy oil; Golden Lane light oil) and discusses the shield-to-slope source-to-sink system. It closes with a FACT · MISSING · GLIAG JUDGEMENT · TRIGGER evidence register, a glossary, a references annex and an amendment register. Revision 1.1 corrects the provenance reading of Girault et al. (2023): their Early Cretaceous Demerara Plateau zircons are mainly Pan-African–Brasiliano and sourced from the French Guiana margin, so the shield origin of the Late Cretaceous Golden Lane sands is presented as a working hypothesis supported by Roddaz et al. (2021). Literature-based interpretation for education and research; not a resource assessment or investment advice. Location: Zoetermeer & Paramaribo. Text-and-data mining reserved under Art. 4(3) Directive (EU) 2019/790 and Art. 15o Dutch Auteurswet.