Prospectivity modelling of the Olympic Cu–Au Province.
Created: 07 Nov 2024 Revised: 20 Dec 2024

This article presents e a weights of evidence mineral prospectivity analysis of the Olympic Cu–Au Province in the eastern Gawler Craton. This metallogenic province is host to iron oxide – copper–gold (IOCG) deposits including Olympic Dam and...

This article presents e a weights of evidence mineral prospectivity analysis of the Olympic Cu–Au Province in the eastern Gawler Craton. This metallogenic province is host to iron oxide – copper–gold (IOCG) deposits including Olympic Dam and Prominent Hill. As much of the province is buried beneath younger sedimentary cover, undertaking a mineral prospectivity analysis in this ‘fairway’ is particularly relevant in enabling ranking of camp- to deposit-scale geophysical features. The analysis presented here integrates regional gravity and magnetic potential field data, magnetotelluric data, and basement geological interpretations. A knowledge-based weights of evidence approach was chosen for use, as the IOCG deposit characteristics known within this region comprise a wide variety of geological hosts, structural settings and alteration/mineralisation styles. Previous work assessed areas of interest for U-rich IOCG deposits across east-central South Australia using a variety of data types, including mapped and interpreted geology, regional geophysics and point-source information from drillholes. Recent improvements to the interpreted basement geology of the region, geophysical anomaly delineation, and lithospheric-scale magnetotelluric imaging have warranted making an update to prospectivity models across the Olympic Domain. The resulting models highlight the major IOCG deposits as well as under-explored regions, and validate DEM applying the weights of evidence approach at this domain scale. Incorporation of geological proxies for mineral system components, and their integration with geophysical anomalism, provides a method for narrowing the search space for IOCG deposits beyond targeting gravity anomalies alone, and eliminates many false positives. This ‘intelligence amplification’ process provides a pragmatic framework for exploration effort scale-reduction from a domain of proven prospectivity to the camp scale.

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About this record

Record No mesac28834
Topic Geoscientific Information
Type of Resource Document
Category Type Earth Sciences
Document Type Departmental Publication - MESA Journal
Contributor Government of South Australia. Department for Energy and Mining
Sponsor
Tenement
Tenement Holder
Operator
Geological Province
    Mine Name
    Stratigraphy
    Commodity
      Notes
      Doc No: MESAJ 090 p: 036-041

      Doc No: MESAJ 090 p: 036-041

      Language English
      Metadata Standard ISO 19115-3

      Citations

      Use constraints License
      License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
      Persistent identifier https://pid.sarig.sa.gov.au/document/mesac28834
      Citation Wise, T. Prospectivity modelling of the Olympic Cu–Au Province. Departmental Publication - Mesa Journal. Government of South Australia.
      https://pid.sarig.sa.gov.au/document/mesac28834

      Technical information

      Status
      Maintenance and Update Frequency
      Geographic Reference GDA2020 (EPSG:7844)
      Geo bounding box {"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[135,-35.5],[138.5,-35.5],[138.5,-29],[135,-29],[135,-35.5]]]}
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      Lineage