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Regional geology and metallogeny of the eastern Aileron and Irindina Provinces: A Field Guide

The last five to seven years have seen a major revision in our understanding of the geology of central Australia, with advancements in the field of geochronology redefining the geological framework and history of this area. Prior to about 1995, the eastern Arunta region was thought to consist of moderate to high grade metamorphic Palaeoproterozoic rocks with a complex geological history. This basement was interpreted to be overlain by low grade, mainly sedimentary rocks of the Georgina and Amadeus Basins, which are part of the extensive Neoproterozoic to late Palaeozoic Centralian Superbasin (Walter et al., 1995). However, workers at Adelaide, La Trobe, Australian National and Monash Universities found that rocks of the Harts Range Group (also referred to as the Irindina Supracrustal Assemblage) have a Neoproterozoic to early Palaeozoic depositional age, and were intensely metamorphosed and deformed during the Ordovician (e.g. Miller et al., 1998, Mawby et al., 1999). Subsequent work by the Northern Territory Geological Survey (NTGS) and Geoscience Australia (GA) indicates that the Palaeoproterozoic part of the Arunta region can itself be divided into two discrete provinces: (1) the older (1840-1760 Ma) Aileron Province, and (2) the younger (1680-1610 Ma) Warumpi Province. Further work by the two geological surveys and the Australian National University suggests that in the eastern Arunta region, the Aileron Province can be divided into two sequences, the older (1820-1800 Ma) Strangways Metamorphic Complex and the younger (~1760 Ma) Oonagalabi Assemblage. Definition of these sequences became possible only because of the availability of a critical mass of geochronological data.


One of the purposes of this field trip is to illustrate the characteristics of the Palaeoproterozoic basement and the overlying Neoproterozoic to Palaeozoic rocks, with emphasis on the role of modern geochronology in resolving the newly defined terrains. The rocks of the eastern Arunta region have also undergone multiple deformation and metamorphic events that are now being unravelled. This complex history will also be illustrated during the excursion. The second aspect that will be illustrated in this field trip is the metallogeny of the eastern Arunta region. The region is characterised by a large variety of mineral deposits, including lode gold, volcanic-hosted massive sulphide (VHMS), carbonate replacement Zn-Cu, iron-oxide Cu-Au (IOCG), skarn W-(Mo-Cu-Au), carbonatite and aeolian/alluvial garnet deposits. However, most of the known deposits are small, with only the Molyhil W(-Mo-Cu-Au?) deposit, the Mud Tank vermiculite and the White Range Au deposits mined in recent times. Potentially the most economically important deposits are the garnet deposits and the Nolans Bore rare-earth-element (REE)-phosphate-U deposit. This excursion will visit examples of all of these deposit types.

Simple

Identification info

Date (Publication)
2006-01-01T00:00:00
Edition

1

Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/64220

Cited responsible party
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Publisher

Geoscience Australia

Canberra
Author

Huston, D.L.

1
Author

Maidment, D.

2
Author

Hussey, K.J.

3
Name

Record

Issue identification

2006/013

Point of contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Custodian

MNHD

Owner

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Custodian

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice
Topic category
  • Geoscientific information

Extent

N
S
E
W


Maintenance and update frequency
Unknown

Resource format

Title

Product data repository: Various Formats

Website

Data Store directory containing the digital product files

Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes

Keywords
  • GA Publication

  • Record

Theme
  • economic geology

Theme
  • geology

Theme
  • metallogenesis

Theme
  • mineral deposits

Theme
  • AEM

Keywords
  • AU-NT

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
  • Earth Sciences

Keywords
  • Published_External

Resource constraints

Title

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Alternate title

CC-BY

Edition

4.0

Website

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

Access constraints
License
Use constraints
License

Resource constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified
Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Distribution Information

Distributor contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Distributor

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice
OnLine resource

Download the record (pdf)

Download the record (pdf)

Distribution format
  • pdf

Resource lineage

Statement

Unknown

Hierarchy level
Non geographic dataset
Other

GA Publication

Description

Source data not available.

Metadata constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/a05f7892-eca5-7506-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Title

GeoNetwork UUID

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice

Type of resource

Resource scope
Document
Name

GA Record

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

Citation identifier
eCatId/64220

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/a05f7892-eca5-7506-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Date info (Revision)
2018-04-22T08:52:57
Date info (Creation)
2006-05-18T00:00:00

Metadata standard

Title

AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-3

Title

Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014

Edition

Version 2.0, September 2018

Citation identifier
https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551

 
 

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

AEM economic geology geology metallogenesis mineral deposits

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