Tectonics of 1590Ma metallogeny

Project Theme

Tectonics and Metallogeny

Project Investigator

Doctor Caroline Forbes

Project Collaborators

CERG

Industry partners

PIRSA

Oxiana Limited

This project is a collaboration between PIRSA, Oxiana Ltd, the Continental Evolution Research Group at the University of Adelaide and the CMXUC.  The aim is to establish the tectonics of the South Australian Craton during the critical period for the formation of Cu, Au and U mineralisation in South Australia. In 2007 Doctor Forbes focussed on the area around, and to the north of Prominent Hill, including the Mt Woods inlier.  This work has confirmed recent dating of a significant amphibolite to granulite facies metamorphic event in the Mt Woods inlier, which overlapped temporally with the formation of the Prominent Hill deposit.  The pressure-temperature path is comparable to other HT-LP terranes in the Australian Proterozoic and consistent with a widespread thermal event of considerable magnitude.  Exhumation of the metamorphic rocks appears to have occurred via thrusting on a north-dipping series of faults – the southernmost of which include the Prominent Hill Shear Zone!  A picture of active ~N-S shortening during mineralisation is staring to be built up that will provide important constraints on future exploration