VIMP Report 4 - The geology and prospectivity of the southern margin of the Murray Basin
 |
| |||||||||||||||
Product description:Download The downloadable version of this report is supplied in PDF format. Abstract The geology and prospectivity of the southern margin of the Murray Basin has been summarised to provide information to explorers making application for tender areas in the North West VIMP initiative area. The exemption on granting mining and exploration licences within the North West VIMP initiative area will be partially lifted during the tender process. Tender areas have only been defined around the south eastern part of the initiative area. The remainder of the initiative area will be available for licence applications submitted by the standard process. Regions with potential to host previously unidentified gold and/or base metal mineralisation have been outlined. These were identified by detailed interpretation of existing company airborne geophysical data, summary of recent company exploration work, compilation of mineralisation styles within goldfields and other commodities, modelling of Murray Basin sediment cover over Palaeozoic basement, together with the results of recent surface mapping in areas adjacent to the North West VIMP initiative area. Many of these prospective areas are possible repetitions of the styles of mineralisation observed in the flanking Palaeozoic, and have been relatively unexplored due to poor exposure or blanketing by sediments of the Murray Basin. Structural characteristics such as regional structural highs and brittle faults and fractures have been identified as features focusing gold mineralisation. Other geological environments known to host gold include quartz free auriferous dark carbonaceous slates, greenstone hosted gold and base metals, granite hosted gold and Stawell-type mineralisation. Known goldfields still represent attractive exploration targets. All currently operating gold mines in Victoria are within historical goldfields and have often doubled previous past production. Thumbprint magnetic anomalies also present potential primary diamond targets under an overburden of barren Murray basin sediments. Potential also exists for additional mineral sands, brown coal and bentonite resources within the Murray Basin sediments as well as additional near surface gypsum deposits. Bibliographic reference Bush, M.D., Cayley, R.A., Rooney, S., Slater, K., & Whitehead, M.L., 1995. The geology and prospectivity of the southern margin of the Murray Basin. Geological Survey of Victoria. VIMP Report 4. Department of Agriculture, Energy and Minerals. Related products:
| ||||||||||||||||
