Eastern Tanami mineralisation

T. P. Mernagh¹; A.S. Wygralak^2
1Geoscience Australia
²Northern Territory Geological Survey

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Introduction

The Eastern Tanami region of northern Australia has emerged over the last two decades as the largest gold producing region in the Northern Territory, with an estimated total resource of >12 Moz Au. Gold is present in epigenetic quartz veins hosted by metasediments and mafic rocks, and in sulphide-rich replacement zones within banded iron formations (BIF). Most deposits are associated with late (D₅) faults and shear zones. Structures active during D₅ include ESE-trending sinistral faults that curve into north-trending reverse faults localised between and around granitoid domes. Limited geochronological data suggest that most gold mineralisation is temporally associated with granitoid intrusion at about 1815 Ma to 1790 Ma.

The region contains over 100 gold occurrences, largely concentrated in three goldfields: Dead Bullock Soak (DBS); The Granites; and the Tanami. The DBS goldfield (total resource >7.0 Moz Au) contains mineralisation in folded greenschist facies siltstone, BIFs, and chert of the Dead Bullock Formation. At Callie, the largest deposit in the region (>6.0 Moz Au), mineralisation is in D5 sheeted quartz veins associated with fold closures within carbonaceous metasiltstone. The remaining DBS deposits consist of Au + quartz ± carbonate stringers in BIF and chert beds and the gold is contained within arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite and minor pyrite.

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Related links

Evolution and metallogenesis of the North Australian Craton Conference Abstracts