Authors / CoAuthors
Schroder, I. | Huston, D. | de Caritat, P. | Czarnota, K.
Abstract
<div><strong>Output type: </strong>Exploring for the Future Extended Abstract</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Short abstract: </strong>Australian sediment-hosted mineral systems play a crucial role in providing base metals and critical minerals essential for the global low-carbon economy. The Georgina Basin has the key components for forming and preserving a sediment-hosted Zn-Pb mineral system, but historically has been considered ‘cover’ to deeper, more prospective Proterozoic basement rocks. Thus, the basin has remained relatively under-explored, with many questions yet to be resolved on its sediment-hosted Zn-Pb mineral system and prospectivity for Zn-Pb. Utilising new whole-rock and isotope geochemistry of the Georgina Basin from recently drilled holes in the Northern Territory, we demonstrate the sensitivity of local redox boundaries to detect regional mineralisation. Two geochemically enriched zones have been identified and interpreted as redox interfaces which have trapped and concentrated metals from the surrounding basin, a ‘supergene zone’ and a ‘water intercept zone’. The ‘supergene zone’ is a paleo water table horizon, while the ‘water intercept zone’ is an active redox front at the uppermost part of the Cambrian Limestone Aquifer. The enrichment of these redox zones is consistent across multiple drill holes, reaching up to 395 ppm Pb and 1550 ppm Zn. Additionally, the Pb isotopes of high-Pb and sulfidic intervals have a highly radiogenic character (206Pb/204Pb ~22.0–23.0) that is diagnostic of Georgina Basin’s Mississippi Valley-type Zn-Pb mineralisation. Taken together, these results suggest there may be buried mineralisation in this part of the Georgina Basin, as well as highlight the potential of these redox interfaces as a regional reconnaissance target for exploration.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Citation: </strong>Schroder I.F., Huston D. & de Caritat P., 2024. The geochemistry of redox interfaces for insights into Zn-Pb prospectivity in the Georgina Basin. In: Czarnota, K. (ed.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts, Geoscience Australia, Canberra, https://doi.org/10.26186/149116 </div>
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document
eCat Id
149116
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Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
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Keywords
- ( Project )
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- EFTF – Exploring for the Future
- ( Project )
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- Barkly-Isa-Georgetown
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- Geochemistry
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- Lead isotopes
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- Whole rock
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- sediment-hosted base metals
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- Georgina Basin
- theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
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- Exploration geochemistry
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- Published_External
Publication Date
2024-06-30T23:18:59
Creation Date
2023-12-07T16:00:00
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completed
Purpose
Demonstrating the application of whole-rock geochemistry for understanding redox zones and assessing the prospectivity of sediment hosted mineral systems
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geoscientificInformation
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<div>This work was planned as follow-up to the Northern Australia Hydrogeochemistry Survey (NAHS) as part of Exploring for the Future, with the intention of getting whole rock geochemistry of the hydrogeology. It has used drillcore from the Georgina Basin cover collected as part of the East Tennant National Drilling Initiative program, a joint Geoscience Australia-MinEx CRC project</div>
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[-26, -11, 129, 138]
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