Authors / CoAuthors
Huston, D.L. | Skirrow, R.G. | Blewett, R. | Jaques, A.L.
Abstract
The minerals industry presently provides 49% of Australia's export income. Although most of this income is derived from the bulk commodities, the earliest mining in Australia was of precious and base metals. The first major mining boom in Australia, the Victorian gold rush, and later rushes to silver-lead deposits at Broken Hill and gold deposits at Kalgoorlie, laid the foundations of Australia's wealth in the latter half of the 1800s. These mining booms had major consequences in the founding of provincial cities such as Bendigo, Ballarat and Kalgoolie and funding early growth of Melbourne and Perth. These and subsequent mineral discoveries were major drivers in opening up regional and inland Australia, not only for mining, but also for agriculture and tourism. Analysis of major Australian mineral provinces indicate that despite differences in metallogeny and geological setting, these provinces share many common features, including an association with margins of crustal blocks; an association with (inverted) extensional faults, many of which penetrate the crust; a common association with mantle-derived magmas or fluids; a temporal association with plate reconfigurations; localisation of ores by chemical or physical gradients; and an association with major fluid flow caused by either thermal or tectonic events. Major mineral provinces are products of the supercontinent cycle and developed preferentially along the margins of crustal blocks. Localisation of deposits is controlled by the basinal, structural and chemical architecture developed during these processes. Formation of major provinces may be the consequence of unusual processes or events that overprint the supercontinent cycle. The Eastern Goldfields gold province is related to amalgamation of the first supercontinent, Kenorland, and the Australian zinc belt Olympic Cu-Au-U province relates to the first break-up after to GOE. The Victorian goldfields appear to be associated with Au-enriched sources.
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nonGeographicDataset
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69996
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Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
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- External Publication
- ( Theme )
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- metallogenesis
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
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- Earth Sciences
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- Published_Internal
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2010-01-01T00:00:00
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