This report presents the results of geochronology from projects completed during 2011 and 2012, which addressed rock samples collected from a number of different geological provinces within South Australia. The Musgrave Province in northern South...
This report presents the results of geochronology from projects completed during 2011 and 2012, which addressed rock samples collected from a number of different geological provinces within South Australia. The Musgrave Province in northern South Australia is dominated by felsic gneisses that are intruded by mafic to ultramafic rocks, with very little control available on the nature of this basement. Project PCG01-08, run in collaboration with Pepininni Minerals Ltd, aimed to date a sample of migmatitic paragneiss and a two- pyroxene granulite, in order to investigate the temporal relationship between the these rock types across Pepininni's tenements within the Musgrave Province; the latter rock type is associated with anomalous Cu values within the Woodroffe prospect. The Kalkaroo Cu-Au deposit within the Curnamona Province is a structurally and stratigraphically controlled Cu-Au-Mo-LREE deposit held by Havilah Resources NL, with a measured resource of 62 Mt @ 0.55% Cu and 0.44% Au. Although SHRIMP U-Pb monazite, rutile and zircon dating has been carried out on samples from the related and nearby North Portia deposit (Teale and Fanning, 2000), there had been no U-Pb dating of minerals from the Kalkaroo deposit until the present study (PGC01-10), which provided specific data with which to compare the timing of mineralisation in this district. The results showed that, similar to at North Portia, Cu mineralisation within the Kalkaroo deposit occurred at c. 1590 Ma as indicated by the new in situ SHRIMP dating of allanite intergrown with chalcopyrite. The Cambrian metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks from the Kanmantoo Province are host to Cu-(Au-Ag) resources at the Kanmantoo mine and to Zn-Pb-Ag-(Cu-Au) resources at the Angas mine. The region of the Kanmantoo Province that has to date attracted least exploration is that which lies beneath the Cenozoic Murray Basin. This region was the focus of project PGC02-01 run with Gold Fields Australasia. The company's Haylands prospect lies to the north-west of Morgan township, and contains a sequence of mafic volcanics and volcaniclastics recently intercepted within a PACE co-funded drillhole, DEL10ACD001. Dating of drill core samples recovered from this drillhole was attempted to determine the age of the host sequence and the timing of K-feldspar-bearing hydrothermal veining that is associated with elevated Cu values. The results suggest a c. 510 Ma age for the host rocks, and imply that hydrothermal alteration may have occurred during one or more events. The Cenozoic Eucla Basin overlies much of the western portion of the state, and is host to a new zircon-rich mineral sands province (Hou et al., 2011). Dating of zircon and monazite from a number of the deposits and prospects within this province was undertaken in collaboration with Iluka Resources (PGC02-02) to further investigate the source terrains and transport processes that have led to the formation of these world class zircon deposits. The results of this study have confirmed the dominantly Western Australian source regions for the zircons. The remaining projects all focussed on mineralisation-related dating of rocks from the Gawler Craton. Tasman Resources Ltd have recently discovered the Vulcan Cu-Au prospect, within the Olympic Cu-Au Province. Vulcan lies some 25 km to the north-east of Olympic Dam, and has significant geological similarities to that deposit. Hematite breccias at Vulcan host chalcopyrite-rich mineralisation and, significantly, have molybdenite intergrown with this chalcopyrite. Project PGC02-03 sought to date the time of formation of the hematite breccia at Vulcan, and to investigate the age of some of the host brecciated granitic rocks. The results are highly significant, providing an unambiguous date of c. 1585 Ma for the hydrothermal brecciation and mineralisation at Vulcan; one of the clearest indicators that the hematite breccia systems of the Olympic Cu-Au Province are part of the same mineralising event as the higher temperature skarn-style mineralisation dated from deposits such as Hillside and Moonta, for example. Projects PGC02-04 and PGC02-05 were conducted in collaboration with Trafford Resources on their tenements in the northern Eyre Peninsula. The close geological relationship between these two projects sees them combined for the purposes of this report, with new zircon U-Pb data being presented on the age of the host rocks to the Weednana skarn magnetite deposit, the Telephone Dam Fe-Zn-Pb-Ag-(U) prospect, and the Mawson Cu-Fe prospect. The host rocks range from earliest Paleoproterozoic c. 2480 Ma at Telephone Dam, to the younger Paleoproterozoic rocks of the Cleve Group at Mawson, indicating that this region of the Cleve Domain includes the Sleaford Complex as basement and an overlying Paleoproterozoic cover sequence; both of which have been deformed during the c. 1710 Ma Kimban Orogeny. At the Mawson prospect, we have also dated the skarn-style garnet-pyroxene alteration with both Sm-Nd and Re-Os methods, both of which confirm the c. 1590 Ma age for alteration. This age also matches the timing of granite emplacement at Weednana, from that deposit's new dating done in this project. These latter data show that the basement rocks of the central-northern Eyre Peninsula also underwent significant alteration during the Gawler Range Volcanics-Hiltaba Suite magmatic event, in common with those of the eastern Gawler Craton. Finally, we have also dated two of the high level felsic porphyries from the Peterlumbo epithermal silver prospect, in collaboration with Investigator Resources (PGC02-06). The Peterlumbo prospect, and the Paris prospect in particular, host high level, epithermal vein type silver mineralisation which is thought to be genetically related to the nearby Gawler Range Volcanics. Dating of two porphyritic lithologies has confirmed they are part of the Gawler Range Volcanics, and hence it appears that the mineralisation is indeed part of this volcanic system.
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