Wauchope wolfram field* is situated 260 miles by road north of Alice Springs, Northern Territory. Wolfram occurs in a series of quartz reefs the series is traceable over a strike-length of 3,000ft and the reefs are 6in. to i8in. thick. The main production has come from three reefs 12in. to 18in. thick. The field was discovered in 1917 and, from then until 1941, the deposits were worked at such times as tungsten prices were favourable (Fig. 2). Most of the mining was done on tributing basis, and the exploitation of the field was rather unsystematic. Production during that time was approximately 1,000 tons} of concentrate, obtained from an estimated 10,000 tons of quartz mined. Mining had ceased when the Commonwealth Government took over the field in April, 1942, and there were no accessible working faces. Employing Chinese labour, the Government drove 2,800ft. of exploratory and developmental adits, drives, and rises and stoped a small amount of ore. Five drill holes aggregating 1,108ft. tested the reefs ahead of the workings. The results of the testings were disappointing. It was found that payable Ore was largely confined to one shoot (Shoot A) with a maximum strike-length of 300ft and extending down-dip for 120ft. to 200ft. from which most of the ore had been extracted. The shoot occurs near the outcrop of the vein system, and the long axis is roughly parallel to the outcrop. Vein-contouring shows that it is situated in a structural basin in the beds and reefs (which are mainly parallel to the bedding) of 151 samples taken from the quartz remaining within the structurally favourable ground, the weighted mean content was 0.96 per cent WO, Ore from within the shootlimits yielded 1.2 per cent W0 3. On the basis of these figures it was estimated that, when the Government ceased mining at the end of 1943, 5,000 tons of quartz averaging 1.2 per cent recoverable W03 remained in Shoot A (Plates 4 and 5).

This Bulletin presents an account of the general geology, stratigraphy, structure, and mineral resources of the Brock's Creek district, Northern Territory. The general geological mapping of the district was carried out by the Aerial, Geological, and Geophysical Survey of Northern Australia in 1939, and a brief account of the results then obtained has been published (A.G.G.S.N.A., 1939). Some further mapping was carried out in 1950. The most important sedimentary rocks of the district are believed to be of Lower Proterozoic age and have been called the Brocks Creek Group (Noakes, 1949). They are dominantly argillaceous in type, but contain sandy formations as well as thin beds of conglomerate and limestone. Numerous sills of amphibolite, which are of igneous origin, are found within the sedimentary sequence. The sediments and interrelated amphibolites probably attain a thickness of 18,000 feet. Unconformably overlying the Brock's Creek Group is a comparatively thin formation of quartzite which is probably late Proterozoic, in age and is known as the Ruldiva Quartzite. Horizontally bedded Lower Cretaceous sandstone and shale up to 200 feet, thick is found capping mesas ill the district. In the north-eastern section of the area mapped is a concordant body of granite (Brock's Creek Granite), roughly circular in shape at the surface, and haying an average diameter of approximately six miles. A smaller area of concordant granite occurs near Mt. Shoobridge in the south-western portion of the area mapped. A discordant cross-cutting granite (Margaret Granite) cuts through the Brock's Creek sediments in the south-eastern portion of the district and exends for many miles to the south. The Buldiva Quartzite is only gently folded and is not intruded by igneous rocks, but the Brocks Creek Group has been subjected to considerable folding and faulting. The fold axes trend north-westerly or northerly, and marked cleavage has been produced parallel to the fold axes. The fine-grained sediments have been converted into schist in many places. Comparatively broad domal and basin-shape1 folds dominate the general structure of the district, but some anticlinal folds have been comparatively tightly compressed---e.g., the Howley Anticline. Within the 300 square miles of country mapped, it was found that deposits of gold and copper occur within, or close to, one formation, which may be repeated from place to place by folding and faulting. The favourable formation is a graphitic slate but is closely associated with a thin band of conglomerate and is normally associated also with sills of amphibolite. A limestone commonly occurs above or below the graphitic slate, but is lenticular in habit. Ore is commonly found in domal and anticlinal structures within these beds, especially near the more crenulated portions of the structure.

Legacy product - no abstract available Never published, see Record 1965/048 instead

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A total of 22 "testing and defining" rotary cored drill holes were drilled by the Bureau and J. McD. Royle Ltd., contractor to the Bureau, during the prospecting for reserves of open-cut coal in the Tomago Stage of the Upper Coal Measures near Buchanan. These 22 holes involved 3640 ft. of drilling and indicated possible reserves of 4,200,000 tons of coal suitable for mining by underground and open cut methods. The geology of the area, and the operations carried out, including mining, logging, sampling, analysis, and surveying, are discussed. The results of the drilling programme are shown in the accompanying maps, and graphic and bore logs.

A total of 25 rotary cored holes were drilled by the Bureau in Portion 49, Parish of Wallarah, County Northumberland, 2 miles south of Swansea. Approximately 1400 ft. of "test and define" drilling proved a possible 200,000 tons of coal suitable to be open cut under an average overburden of 6/1 ratio. The initial drilling programme showed a rolling seam. After surveying, further holes were drilled to locate the displacement which is 10 to 15 ft. in the S.W. corner of the area. No other obstacles are known which would hinder immediate working of the area. The lower split of the Wallarah Seam was tested in three holes but was found to be too thin to warrant further prospecting. The geology of the area is discussed in this report, and the results of the drilling programme are shown in the accompanying graphic and bore logs.

The Australian Antarctic Expedition 1911-14 established four absolute magnetic stations, namely Stations A, B, C and D. Two subsequent stations, Stations E and F, came into operation in 1950 and 1952 respectively. Because absolute magnetic observations had been made at different stations is was essential that the differences in the magnetic elements between the various stations be determined so that all data could be reduced to a common point. The observations were carried out during the period 31st March to 6th April 1952, whilst the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions relief operations were in progress.

The existence of wolfram in the deposit has been known since about 1915, and mining was carried out intermittently from that time until about 1938. It was not until June, 1951, when the deposit was visited by us, that the existence of scheelite in important quantity in the known ore was established. During this visit, also, a study of the structure of the deposit convinced us that, although only a little ore was exposed, considerable quantities of non-outcropping ore might be found. As magnetite is one of the gangue-minerals, a request was made for a magnetic survey. This survey was carried out by the Geophysical Section. Subsequent diamond drilling by Tungsten Consolidated Limited has shown that substantial bodies of scheelite and wolfram ore exist in the area under the structural conditions originally postulated; these conditions are outlined below. The geology of the deposits and the results of combined geological, geophysical, and diamond drilling investigations are discussed.

With Australia's postwar immigration programme and the increased demand for food supplies, an expansion of Australia's rural industries is of primary importance, both to increase domestic food supplies and to obtain foreign exchange by export of primary produce. For such a development, the rainfall, surface and underground water resources are the factors of prime importance. In West Australia the difficulties met in finding water for farming purposes prevents rational development of many rural areas. Also, in some places town water supplies are insufficient or the water is saline. Water resources may be classified as follow: rain water from tanks or dams, water from bores or wells, water from old mine shafts (in mining districts), water from springs, [and] water from rivers. The present investigations are not concerned with the last two types of water supply. The following aims were set. 1. To test several types of instruments, to discover their limitations and ranges and the optimum conditions for their operations. 2. To estimate the accuracy of depth determination to discontinuities which might be related to the geology. 3. To investigate the possibility of distinguishing the nature of the discontinuities, for instance, decomposed granite, fresh granite, ground water level, etc., and the possibility of estimating whether ground water is fresh, brackish or saline. The tests areas were selected in the belief that sufficient bore information would be available to serve as controls. However, except at Austin Downs, near Cue, and at Big Bell, the bore information was generally insufficient, vague and unreliable. With the exceptions mentioned above, adequate records had not been kept. The purpose of the geophysical survey was not primarily to search for areas with favourable ground water occurrences but to test the resistivity method in areas where information on the occurrence of ground water was available from existing wells and bores. The order in which the tests are described in the report is: Wubin, Cue, Big Bell, Lake Grace and Kulkin.