The timing of mineralization in the Pilbara Craton, Western Australia

Mineralizing events in the North Pilbara terrain of Western Australia occurred between 3490 and 2700 Ma and include the oldest examples in the world of many ore deposit types. These events were pulsed and associated with major volcano-plutonic episodes (volcanic-hosted massive sulfide, porphyry Cu, Sn-Ta pegmatite, mafic-ultramafic-hosted Ni-Cu-PGE, and epithermal deposits) and deformation events (lode Au deposits). In many cases, the mineralizing events are associated with extension, either in rifts, pull-apart or back-arc basins, or as the consequence of doming associated with granitoid diapirism.

Although mineralizing events occurred throughout the evolution of the North Pilbara terrain, the largest deposits are related to the development of the Mallina basin, which is located between the older East and West Pilbara granite-greenstone terranes. Four volcano-plutonic and three deformation events occurred in and around the Mallina basin between 2950 and 2840 Ma. Mineralization in the East and West Pilbara granite-greenstone terranes is less intense and occurred over a much longer period.

Compared to other Archean granite-greenstone terrains, the North Pilbara terrain is poorly endowed; the only known world-class deposit in this region is the Wodgina Ta-Sn pegmatite deposit, but large iron ore deposits are being mined in the northeastern North Pilbara terrain. The long history of crustal development and slow rate of crustal growth may be responsible for the diversity of mineral deposits and could account for the apparent poor endowment of the North Pilbara terrain.

Simple

Identification info

Date (Publication)
2002-01-01T00:00:00
Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/71277

Citation identifier
Digital Object Identifier/http://dx.doi.org/10.2113/97.4.733

Cited responsible party
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Author

Huston, D.L.

 1
Author

Shen-Su, S.

 2
Author

Blewett, R.

 3
Author

Phillips, D.

 4
Author

Baker, D.

 5
Author

Brauhart, C.

 6
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
Keywords

  • External Publication

  • Scientific Journal Paper

Keywords

  • AU-WA

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

Link to Publication

Link to Publication

Resource lineage

Statement

Unknown

Hierarchy level
Non geographic dataset
Other

External 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-fa8b-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
Non geographic dataset
Name

nonGeographicDataset

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

Citation identifier
eCatId/71277

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/a05f7892-fa8b-7506-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Date info (Revision)
2018-04-22T08:25:17
Date info (Creation)
2010-11-11T00:00:00

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



Provided by

Access to the portal

Associated resources

Not available