Yilgarn craton
Encyclopedia
The Yilgarn Craton is a large craton
which constitutes the bulk of the Western Australia
n land mass. It is bounded by a mixture of sedimentary basins and Proterozoic
fold and thrust belts. Zircon
grains in the Jack Hills, Narryer Terrane have been dated at ~4.27 Ga, with one detrital
zircon dated as old as 4.4 Ga.
s of existing continental crust
, most of which formed between 3.2 Ga and 2.8 Ga.
This accretion event is recorded by widespread granite
and granodiorite
intrusions, which comprise over 70% of the Yilgarn craton; voluminous tholeiitic
basalt
and komatiite
volcanism
; regional metamorphism
and deformation as well as the emplacement of the vast majority of the craton's endowment in gold
mineralisation.
These accretion
events occurred in several phases, probably by accretion of continental fragments separated by pauses in subduction
, with renewed activity occurring episodically.
The craton is primarily composed of approximately 2.8 billion year old (~2.8 Ga) granite-gneiss metamorphic terrain (the Southwestern Province and Western Gneiss Belt), and three granite-greenstone
terrains (the North-East Goldfields, the Southern Cross and the greenschist metamorphic
Murchison Provinces). Some greenstone belts and granites are as old as 3.1-2.9 Ga, and some are younger, at ~2.75-2.65 Ga.
The craton is one of the distinct physiographic provinces of the West Australian Shield
physiographic division, which comprises the Stirling-Mount Barren Block, Darling Hills, and Recherche Shelf sections.
The Western Gneiss Terrane is a series of polydeformed high-grade early Archaean metamorphic belts, composed predominantly of feldspathic
leucocratic granulite
gneisses, which represent some of the oldest crustal fragments on Earth. The Western Gneiss Terrane is distinct from the remainder of the Yilgarn Craton in that the latter has a predominance of metavolcanic rocks, both felsic
and mafic
, whereas the former consists of high-grade metasediments and gneiss
es of unknown protolith
.
The Western Gneiss Terrane is exposed along the western half of the northern margin of the Yilgarn Craton as the Narryer Gneiss Terrane
, a composite of heavily polydeformed feldspathic metagranite and metasedimentary amphibolite
-grade gneisses and migmatite
s, dated at greater than 3.3 Ga and up to 3.8 Ga in age, flanked by the Murgoo Gneiss Terrane (2.95 Ga) as well as sheets of 2.75 Ga to 2.6 Ga granite, obducted
ophiolite sheets (the Trillbar Complex) and some 2.4 Ga to 2.0 Ga Proterozoic
gneiss belts.
On the western edge of the Yilgarn Craton, partially covered by Phanerozoic sedimentary basins and in faulted contact with the 2.7 Ga to 2.55 Ga Yilgarn tectonic domains, lies the Jumperding Gneiss Complex of 2.75 to 2.65 Ga age, composed primarily of micaceous quartzite
, quartz-feldspar-biotite-garnet gneiss, andalusite
and sillimanite
schist
s, banded iron formation
and other exotics, intruded by minor masses of porphyritic granite.
Detrital zircons in the Jumperding Gneiss Complex range in age from 3267 +/- 30 Ma to 3341 +/- 100 Ma, with metamorphic overgrowth dated at 3180 +/- Ma.
On the southwest of the Yilgarn Craton the Balingup Gneiss Complex is situated inboard from the Early Proterozoic Leeuwin Complex of metamorphic rocks. The Balingup Complex consists primarily of metasedimentary paragneiss, granite orthogneiss, with minor layers of calc-silicate, ultramafic and ortho-amphibolite gneiss. The metamorphic grade is considered to be peak granulite facies, but the majority has preserved peak amphibolite facies assemblages.
In total, the Western Gneiss Terrane sub-blocks represent an earlier substrate upon which the majority of the Yilgarn Craton's c. 2.70 to 2.55 Ga greenstone metavolcanic belts have been deposited and into which the voluminous Archaean trondhjemite-tonalite-granodiorite (TTG) suite and trondhjemite
-tonalite
-diorite
(TTD) suite granites were emplaced.
The Murchison Province Stratigraphy, after Watkins (1990), is divided into six basic structural-stratigraphic components - two greenstone belt metavolcanic-metasedimentary sequences and four suites of granitoids.
The structural framework in the northeastern Yilgarn craton was largely shaped by transpression that led to the development of folds, reverse faults, sinistral strike-slip movement on NNW-trending regional shear zones, followed by regional folding and shortening. The later occurred in overlapping tectonic processes. The first deformation event is poorly understood but appears to have involved N-S thrusting.
in the Southern Cross Terrane can be divided into three layers: the lower greenstone belt (ca. 3.0 Ga) characterized by mafic volcanic rock and banded iron formation, a felsic-intermediate volcanism layer, and an upper sedimentary layer (ca. 2.73 Ga) of calc-alkaline volcanic (Marda Complex) and clastic sedimentary rocks (Diemals Formation).
East–West orogeny
(ca. 2730–2680 Ma) occurred in two stages; an earlier folding phase and a late phase that resulted in deposition and deformation of the Diemals Formation. Subsequent orogeny (ca. 2680–2655 Ma) resulted in shear zones and arcuate structures.
The lithostratigraphy of the Marda–Diemals greenstone belt
are similar to the northern Murchison Terrane, but has older greenstones and deformation events than the southern Eastern Goldfields Terrane. This indicates that the Eastern Goldfields Terrane may have accreted to an older Murchison–Southern Cross granite–greenstone nucleus.
.
These gold deposits are generally of large tonnage and are confined to the volcanic-intrusive-sedimentary sequences of the greenstone belts and not the granites. There is a pattern of gold distribution along the Archean Boulder-Lefroy shear zone.
Intrusive komatiites (ultramafic volcanic rocks occur along the Norseman-Wiluna Greenstone Belt. A change from volcanic-dominated to plutonic-dominated magmatism occurred in the Norseman-Wiluna Greenstone Belt approximately 2685–2675 Ma. Voluminous high-Ca granite intrusions occurred 2670–2655 Ma. Much of the gold was deposited between 2650–2630 Ma, with much of this associated with strike-slip reactivation of earlier faults (normal and reverse).
An earlier gold event 2660-2655 Ma was associated with major extension (normal faulting and granite doming) resulting in the formation of late basins and the intrusion of mantle-derived magmas (syenites and Mafic-type granites/porphyries) and tight anticlockwise PTt paths.
age. The boundaries between the various flanking terranes provide considerable evidence of the post-Archaean events which have involved the Yilgarn Craton.
, of Jurassic
age, and is separated from this basin by the Darling Fault
. The Perth Basin is considered to be a rift fill basin formed on a passive margin.
, Glengarry Basin and Yerrida Basin, which are all part of a middle Proterozoic mobile belt which leads east to the Musgrave Block
. The Gascoyne complex and other metamorphic belts of this age including reactivation of the Yarlarweelor Gneiss and Narryer Gneiss Terrane
, indicate prolonged multi-phased strike-slip movement (relative to the Yilgarn Craton margin) from the late Archaean through to neoproterozoic and even into the Palaeozoic.
gneisses, migmaites and granites. The Albany-Fraser Orogen displays both subduction-related and prolonged strike-slip tectonic structures and is intimately interconnected with the other Proterozoic basins and mobile belts of Australia.
age in the east and north-east, including the Canning Basin
. It is bounded on the western edge by the Darling Scarp
and Darling Fault
which separate the Yilgarn Craton from the Perth Basin to the west, and is covered by several remnant sedimentary basins of Jurassic age such as the Collie Sub-Basin.
The Yilgarn Craton also has a considerable Tertiary and younger sedimentary veneer of palaeochannel
deposits derived rom prolonged erosion, sedimentation and redeposition of older cover sequences and regolith as well as the Archaean basement itself.
Recognised Tertiary cover sequences include the Bremer Basin, Officer Basin
etc.
is the oldest in the world, recording weathering
events as early as the Cretaceous
Period. This has been created by the generally subtropical latitudes and conditions of the Yilgarn craton, with minimal to no glaciation and generally flat topographical relief resulting in comparatively minor erosion.
The regolith is extremely deeply weathered, in some areas completely converted to saprolite
up to 100 metres below surface. This is considered to have been produced during Caenozoic to Palaeocene tropical conditions, as evidenced by mottled duricrust which records fossilised tree roots, some over 60 million years old. Previous weathering events have been recorded in magnetically remnant ferruginous
laterite
of a Jurassic
age, at about 180 Ma.
The regolith of the Yilgarn impacts directly on the flora and fauna, as some of the soil is essentially fossilised. Much of the groundwater of the Yilgarn is hypersaline, with some being supersaturated in salt. This renders swathes of land barren, with significant salt lakes, and high saline water tables. The origin of this salt is thought to be from precipitation of sea salt carried over the Australian landmass for the past several dozen million years, and the high evaporation rate leaving the salt behind.
The greenstone belts of the Yilgarn Craton include:
reserves, 80% of the world's tantalum
reserves, considerable iron ore, copper
, zinc
and minor lead
reserves. The craton contains significant platinum
, vanadium
, hard-rock titanium
and considerable iron ore resources.
Mining
is conducted mostly in the greenstone belts around mining centres such as Kalgoorlie
, Kambalda
, Norseman
, Meekatharra
and Wiluna
, and minor centres such as Laverton, Leinster
, Leonora
and Southern Cross
.
Ore concentrates or finished product are transported by rail or road to Perth
, Fremantle
, Esperance
, Albany
or Geraldton
.
. Iron ore is mined at Koolyanobbing, north of Kalgoorlie from hematite weathered banded iron formation
, at Mount Gibson, Weld Range and Jack Hills
in the Western Gneiss Terrane from hematised BIF to produce direct-shipping ore.
Large magnetite iron ore deposits are being investigated as a source of magnetite
ore in the Albany-Fraser Complex, where a large deposit is being proposed at Southdown. The Jack Hills, Weld Range and Mount Gibson banded iron formations as well as BIFs around Yalgoo
are also considered potential sources of magnetite iron ore although no operations are as yet running on this type of ore.
Further away from the coast, BIF deposits at Wiluna and Laverton are also under investigation although infrastructure is considered too poor to render these deposits economic.
Major gold deposits occur at Kalgoorlie, Kambalda, Mount Magnet, Boddington, Laverton and Wiluna, and are hosted in greenstone belts. These form linear belts of mafic, ultramafic and felsic volcanics, intercalated with sedimentary sequences, and have been multiply deformed and metamorphosed. The mode of occurrence of the gold mineralisation tends to be small to medium-sized structurally controlled lodes, shears, and quartz veins.
A key feature of beneath many of the region's gold deposits are granite-cored domes at a range of scales. These provided an architecture that focussed fluids-metals into the upper crust depositional sites. Debate continues on whether oxidised magmatic fluids mixed with a reduced (mantle-deep crustal fluid) at the depositional site.
Signatures of the mantle are found in many (large) deposits, including melts from a metasomatised mantle wedge (enriched Mafic-type granites/porphyries and syenites) as well as lamphrophyres. Debate continues whether these mantle rocks were a fluid and/or metal source, or simply reflect a favourable pathway.
are the primary source of nickel metal within the Yilgarn Craton.
and the newly developed Jaguar zinc mine. Minor amounts of copper have been recovered from several copper-bearing gold deposits such as those in the Gullewa Greenstone Belt, at Burtville south of Laverton, at Granny Smith and elsewhere.
The desert area encircling Kalgoorlie, with an area of 500,000 square kilometres, is theorised to host a 100 million tonne copper-zinc deposit. The geology of several volcanic belts in the Yilgarn Craton are strikingly similar to the world's great base metal mines at Kidd Creek
in Northern Ontario
, Canada
. Exploration for copper is continuing in several areas around Ravensthorpe, Balagundi, in the Yandall Belt, and the Duketon Belt where large felsic
volcanic packages are known to exist.
s, primarily in the Mount Weld
Carbonatite
. Smaller carbonatite occurrences at Ponton, near Laverton, and regionally within the eastern granite-gneiss and greenstone belts, may also prove economic.
, Sunrise Dam
, Sons of Gwalia
, St Ives-Kambalda
, Tarmoola
, Wallaby
and Wiluna
. World-class nickel deposits include: Mount Keith, Kambalda and
Craton
A craton is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere. Having often survived cycles of merging and rifting of continents, cratons are generally found in the interiors of tectonic plates. They are characteristically composed of ancient crystalline basement rock, which may be covered by...
which constitutes the bulk of the Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
n land mass. It is bounded by a mixture of sedimentary basins and Proterozoic
Proterozoic
The Proterozoic is a geological eon representing a period before the first abundant complex life on Earth. The name Proterozoic comes from the Greek "earlier life"...
fold and thrust belts. Zircon
Zircon
Zircon is a mineral belonging to the group of nesosilicates. Its chemical name is zirconium silicate and its corresponding chemical formula is ZrSiO4. A common empirical formula showing some of the range of substitution in zircon is 1–x4x–y...
grains in the Jack Hills, Narryer Terrane have been dated at ~4.27 Ga, with one detrital
Detrital
Detritus is a geological term used to describe particles of rock derived from pre-existing rock through processes of weathering and erosion. Detrital particles can consist of lithic fragments , or of monomineralic fragments...
zircon dated as old as 4.4 Ga.
Geology
The Yilgarn Craton appears to have been assembled between ~2.94 and 2.63 Ga by the accretion of a multitude of formerly present blocks or terraneTerrane
A terrane in geology is short-hand term for a tectonostratigraphic terrane, which is a fragment of crustal material formed on, or broken off from, one tectonic plate and accreted or "sutured" to crust lying on another plate...
s of existing continental crust
Continental crust
The continental crust is the layer of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks which form the continents and the areas of shallow seabed close to their shores, known as continental shelves. This layer is sometimes called sial due to more felsic, or granitic, bulk composition, which lies in...
, most of which formed between 3.2 Ga and 2.8 Ga.
This accretion event is recorded by widespread granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
and granodiorite
Granodiorite
Granodiorite is an intrusive igneous rock similar to granite, but containing more plagioclase than orthoclase-type feldspar. Officially, it is defined as a phaneritic igneous rock with greater than 20% quartz by volume where at least 65% of the feldspar is plagioclase. It usually contains abundant...
intrusions, which comprise over 70% of the Yilgarn craton; voluminous tholeiitic
Tholeiite
The tholeiitic magma series is one of two main magma series in igneous rocks, the other magma series being the calc–alkaline. A magma series is a series of compositions that describes the evolution of a mafic magma, which is high in magnesium and iron and produces basalt or gabbro, as it...
basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...
and komatiite
Komatiite
Komatiite is a type of ultramafic mantle-derived volcanic rock. Komatiites have low silicon, potassium and aluminium, and high to extremely high magnesium content...
volcanism
Volcanism
Volcanism is the phenomenon connected with volcanoes and volcanic activity. It includes all phenomena resulting from and causing magma within the crust or mantle of a planet to rise through the crust and form volcanic rocks on the surface....
; regional metamorphism
Metamorphism
Metamorphism is the solid-state recrystallization of pre-existing rocks due to changes in physical and chemical conditions, primarily heat, pressure, and the introduction of chemically active fluids. Mineralogical, chemical and crystallographic changes can occur during this process...
and deformation as well as the emplacement of the vast majority of the craton's endowment in gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
mineralisation.
These accretion
Accretion (geology)
Accretion is a process by which material is added to a tectonic plate or a landmass. This material may be sediment, volcanic arcs, seamounts or other igneous features.-Description:...
events occurred in several phases, probably by accretion of continental fragments separated by pauses in subduction
Subduction
In geology, subduction is the process that takes place at convergent boundaries by which one tectonic plate moves under another tectonic plate, sinking into the Earth's mantle, as the plates converge. These 3D regions of mantle downwellings are known as "Subduction Zones"...
, with renewed activity occurring episodically.
The craton is primarily composed of approximately 2.8 billion year old (~2.8 Ga) granite-gneiss metamorphic terrain (the Southwestern Province and Western Gneiss Belt), and three granite-greenstone
Greenstone belt
Greenstone belts are zones of variably metamorphosed mafic to ultramafic volcanic sequences with associated sedimentary rocks that occur within Archaean and Proterozoic cratons between granite and gneiss bodies....
terrains (the North-East Goldfields, the Southern Cross and the greenschist metamorphic
Metamorphism
Metamorphism is the solid-state recrystallization of pre-existing rocks due to changes in physical and chemical conditions, primarily heat, pressure, and the introduction of chemically active fluids. Mineralogical, chemical and crystallographic changes can occur during this process...
Murchison Provinces). Some greenstone belts and granites are as old as 3.1-2.9 Ga, and some are younger, at ~2.75-2.65 Ga.
The craton is one of the distinct physiographic provinces of the West Australian Shield
Australian Shield
The Australian Shield, also called the Western Australian Shield or Western Plateau, occupies more than half of the continent of Australia. It occupies the portion of Australia west of a line running north-south roughly from the eastern shore of Arnhem Land on the Bay or Gulf of Carpentaria to the...
physiographic division, which comprises the Stirling-Mount Barren Block, Darling Hills, and Recherche Shelf sections.
Western Gneiss Terrane
Feldspar
Feldspars are a group of rock-forming tectosilicate minerals which make up as much as 60% of the Earth's crust....
leucocratic granulite
Granulite
Granulites are medium to coarse–grained metamorphic rocks that have experienced high temperature metamorphism, composed mainly of feldspars sometimes associated with quartz and anhydrous ferromagnesian minerals, with granoblastic texture and gneissose to massive structure...
gneisses, which represent some of the oldest crustal fragments on Earth. The Western Gneiss Terrane is distinct from the remainder of the Yilgarn Craton in that the latter has a predominance of metavolcanic rocks, both felsic
Felsic
The word "felsic" is a term used in geology to refer to silicate minerals, magma, and rocks which are enriched in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminium, sodium, and potassium....
and mafic
Mafic
Mafic is an adjective describing a silicate mineral or rock that is rich in magnesium and iron; the term is a portmanteau of the words "magnesium" and "ferric". Most mafic minerals are dark in color and the relative density is greater than 3. Common rock-forming mafic minerals include olivine,...
, whereas the former consists of high-grade metasediments and gneiss
Gneiss
Gneiss is a common and widely distributed type of rock formed by high-grade regional metamorphic processes from pre-existing formations that were originally either igneous or sedimentary rocks.-Etymology:...
es of unknown protolith
Protolith
Protolith refers to the precursor lithology of a metamorphic rock.For example, the protolith of a slate is a shale or mudstone. Metamorphic rocks can be derived from any other rock and thus have a wide variety of protoliths. Identifying a protolith is a major aim of metamorphic geology.Sedimentary...
.
The Western Gneiss Terrane is exposed along the western half of the northern margin of the Yilgarn Craton as the Narryer Gneiss Terrane
Narryer Gneiss Terrane
The Narryer Gneiss Terrane is a geological complex in Western Australia that is composed of a tectonically interleaved and polydeformed mixture of granite, mafic intrusions and metasedimentary rocks in excess of 3.3 billion years old, with the majority of the Narryer Gneiss Terrane in excess of 3.6...
, a composite of heavily polydeformed feldspathic metagranite and metasedimentary amphibolite
Amphibolite
Amphibolite is the name given to a rock consisting mainly of hornblende amphibole, the use of the term being restricted, however, to metamorphic rocks. The modern terminology for a holocrystalline plutonic igneous rocks composed primarily of hornblende amphibole is a hornblendite, which are...
-grade gneisses and migmatite
Migmatite
Migmatite is a rock at the frontier between igneous and metamorphic rocks. They can also be known as diatexite.Migmatites form under extreme temperature conditions during prograde metamorphism, where partial melting occurs in pre-existing rocks. Migmatites are not crystallized from a totally...
s, dated at greater than 3.3 Ga and up to 3.8 Ga in age, flanked by the Murgoo Gneiss Terrane (2.95 Ga) as well as sheets of 2.75 Ga to 2.6 Ga granite, obducted
Obduction
Obduction is the overthrusting of continental crust by oceanic crust or mantle rocks at a convergent plate boundary. It can occur during an orogeny, or mountain-building episode....
ophiolite sheets (the Trillbar Complex) and some 2.4 Ga to 2.0 Ga Proterozoic
Proterozoic
The Proterozoic is a geological eon representing a period before the first abundant complex life on Earth. The name Proterozoic comes from the Greek "earlier life"...
gneiss belts.
On the western edge of the Yilgarn Craton, partially covered by Phanerozoic sedimentary basins and in faulted contact with the 2.7 Ga to 2.55 Ga Yilgarn tectonic domains, lies the Jumperding Gneiss Complex of 2.75 to 2.65 Ga age, composed primarily of micaceous quartzite
Quartzite
Quartzite is a hard metamorphic rock which was originally sandstone. Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts. Pure quartzite is usually white to gray, though quartzites often occur in various shades of pink...
, quartz-feldspar-biotite-garnet gneiss, andalusite
Andalusite
Andalusite is an aluminium nesosilicate mineral with the chemical formula Al2SiO5.The variety chiastolite commonly contains dark inclusions of carbon or clay which form a checker-board pattern when shown in cross-section....
and sillimanite
Sillimanite
Sillimanite is an alumino-silicate mineral with the chemical formula Al2SiO5. Sillimanite is named after the American chemist Benjamin Silliman . It was first described in 1824 for an occurrence in Chester, Middlesex County, Connecticut, USA....
schist
Schist
The schists constitute a group of medium-grade metamorphic rocks, chiefly notable for the preponderance of lamellar minerals such as micas, chlorite, talc, hornblende, graphite, and others. Quartz often occurs in drawn-out grains to such an extent that a particular form called quartz schist is...
s, banded iron formation
Banded iron formation
Banded iron formations are distinctive units of sedimentary rock that are almost always of Precambrian age. A typical BIF consists of repeated, thin layers of iron oxides, either magnetite or hematite , alternating with bands of iron-poor shale and chert...
and other exotics, intruded by minor masses of porphyritic granite.
Detrital zircons in the Jumperding Gneiss Complex range in age from 3267 +/- 30 Ma to 3341 +/- 100 Ma, with metamorphic overgrowth dated at 3180 +/- Ma.
On the southwest of the Yilgarn Craton the Balingup Gneiss Complex is situated inboard from the Early Proterozoic Leeuwin Complex of metamorphic rocks. The Balingup Complex consists primarily of metasedimentary paragneiss, granite orthogneiss, with minor layers of calc-silicate, ultramafic and ortho-amphibolite gneiss. The metamorphic grade is considered to be peak granulite facies, but the majority has preserved peak amphibolite facies assemblages.
In total, the Western Gneiss Terrane sub-blocks represent an earlier substrate upon which the majority of the Yilgarn Craton's c. 2.70 to 2.55 Ga greenstone metavolcanic belts have been deposited and into which the voluminous Archaean trondhjemite-tonalite-granodiorite (TTG) suite and trondhjemite
Trondhjemite
Trondhjemite is a leucocratic intrusive igneous rock. It is a variety of tonalite in which the plagioclase is mostly in the form of oligoclase. Trondhjemites are sometimes known as plagiogranites....
-tonalite
Tonalite
Tonalite is an igneous, plutonic rock, of felsic composition, with phaneritic texture. Feldspar is present as plagioclase with 10% or less alkali feldspar. Quartz is present as more than 20% of the rock. Amphiboles and pyroxenes are common accessory minerals.In older references tonalite is...
-diorite
Diorite
Diorite is a grey to dark grey intermediate intrusive igneous rock composed principally of plagioclase feldspar , biotite, hornblende, and/or pyroxene. It may contain small amounts of quartz, microcline and olivine. Zircon, apatite, sphene, magnetite, ilmenite and sulfides occur as accessory...
(TTD) suite granites were emplaced.
Murchison Province
The Murchison Province is exposed in the western and northern third of the Yilgarn Craton. The Province is bounded by major transcrustal structures which separate it from the surrounding tectonic provinces of the craton and the Western Gneiss Belt.The Murchison Province Stratigraphy, after Watkins (1990), is divided into six basic structural-stratigraphic components - two greenstone belt metavolcanic-metasedimentary sequences and four suites of granitoids.
- Luke Creek Group metavolcanics
- Mount Farmer Group
- Early granodiorite-monzogranite intrusive suite (now pegmatite-banded orthogneiss)
- Monzogranite Suite (now folded, metagranite)
- Two post-tectonic differentiated suites of granitoid rocks
The structural framework in the northeastern Yilgarn craton was largely shaped by transpression that led to the development of folds, reverse faults, sinistral strike-slip movement on NNW-trending regional shear zones, followed by regional folding and shortening. The later occurred in overlapping tectonic processes. The first deformation event is poorly understood but appears to have involved N-S thrusting.
Southern Cross Province
The Southern Cross Province lies in the central area of the Yilgarn craton. The Marda–Diemals greenstone beltGreenstone belt
Greenstone belts are zones of variably metamorphosed mafic to ultramafic volcanic sequences with associated sedimentary rocks that occur within Archaean and Proterozoic cratons between granite and gneiss bodies....
in the Southern Cross Terrane can be divided into three layers: the lower greenstone belt (ca. 3.0 Ga) characterized by mafic volcanic rock and banded iron formation, a felsic-intermediate volcanism layer, and an upper sedimentary layer (ca. 2.73 Ga) of calc-alkaline volcanic (Marda Complex) and clastic sedimentary rocks (Diemals Formation).
East–West orogeny
Orogeny
Orogeny refers to forces and events leading to a severe structural deformation of the Earth's crust due to the engagement of tectonic plates. Response to such engagement results in the formation of long tracts of highly deformed rock called orogens or orogenic belts...
(ca. 2730–2680 Ma) occurred in two stages; an earlier folding phase and a late phase that resulted in deposition and deformation of the Diemals Formation. Subsequent orogeny (ca. 2680–2655 Ma) resulted in shear zones and arcuate structures.
The lithostratigraphy of the Marda–Diemals greenstone belt
Greenstone belt
Greenstone belts are zones of variably metamorphosed mafic to ultramafic volcanic sequences with associated sedimentary rocks that occur within Archaean and Proterozoic cratons between granite and gneiss bodies....
are similar to the northern Murchison Terrane, but has older greenstones and deformation events than the southern Eastern Goldfields Terrane. This indicates that the Eastern Goldfields Terrane may have accreted to an older Murchison–Southern Cross granite–greenstone nucleus.
Eastern Goldfield Province
The Archaean Norseman-Wiluna Greenstone Belt in the Eastern Goldfield Province contains most of Australia's lode gold deposits, including the famous Kalgoorlie Golden Mile containing the Super PitSuper Pit
The UNT Coliseum, informally known as the Super Pit, is a 10,040-seat multi-purpose arena in Denton, Texas. It was built in 1973. It is home to the North Texas Mean Green men's and women's basketball teams...
.
These gold deposits are generally of large tonnage and are confined to the volcanic-intrusive-sedimentary sequences of the greenstone belts and not the granites. There is a pattern of gold distribution along the Archean Boulder-Lefroy shear zone.
Intrusive komatiites (ultramafic volcanic rocks occur along the Norseman-Wiluna Greenstone Belt. A change from volcanic-dominated to plutonic-dominated magmatism occurred in the Norseman-Wiluna Greenstone Belt approximately 2685–2675 Ma. Voluminous high-Ca granite intrusions occurred 2670–2655 Ma. Much of the gold was deposited between 2650–2630 Ma, with much of this associated with strike-slip reactivation of earlier faults (normal and reverse).
An earlier gold event 2660-2655 Ma was associated with major extension (normal faulting and granite doming) resulting in the formation of late basins and the intrusion of mantle-derived magmas (syenites and Mafic-type granites/porphyries) and tight anticlockwise PTt paths.
Bounding terranes
The Yilgarn Craton is bound on all sides by younger terranes of various ages, but predominantly of ProterozoicProterozoic
The Proterozoic is a geological eon representing a period before the first abundant complex life on Earth. The name Proterozoic comes from the Greek "earlier life"...
age. The boundaries between the various flanking terranes provide considerable evidence of the post-Archaean events which have involved the Yilgarn Craton.
Perth Basin
The Yilgarn Craton is bound on the western side by the Perth BasinPerth basin
The Perth Basin is a thick sedimentary basin in Western Australia. It lies beneath the Swan Coastal Plain west of the Darling Scarp, representing the western limit of the much older Yilgarn Craton, and extends further west offshore...
, of Jurassic
Jurassic
The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...
age, and is separated from this basin by the Darling Fault
Darling Fault
The Darling Fault is one of the longest and most significant faults in Australia, extending for at least 1500 km in a north–south orientation near the west coast of southern Western Australia. It is a major geological boundary separating the Archaean Yilgarn Craton in the east from the younger...
. The Perth Basin is considered to be a rift fill basin formed on a passive margin.
Gascoyne Complex
The Perth Basin is bound on the north by the Gascoyne ComplexGascoyne Complex
The Gascoyne Complex is a terrane of Proterozoic granite and metamorphic rock in the central-western part of Western Australia. The complex outcrops at the exposed western end of the Capricorn Orogen, a 1,000 km-long arcuate belt of folded, faulted and metamorphosed rocks between two Archean...
, Glengarry Basin and Yerrida Basin, which are all part of a middle Proterozoic mobile belt which leads east to the Musgrave Block
Musgrave Block
The Musgrave Block is an east-west trending belt of Proterozoic granulite-gneiss basement rocks approximately 500km long. The Musgrave Block extends from western South Australia into Western Australia....
. The Gascoyne complex and other metamorphic belts of this age including reactivation of the Yarlarweelor Gneiss and Narryer Gneiss Terrane
Narryer Gneiss Terrane
The Narryer Gneiss Terrane is a geological complex in Western Australia that is composed of a tectonically interleaved and polydeformed mixture of granite, mafic intrusions and metasedimentary rocks in excess of 3.3 billion years old, with the majority of the Narryer Gneiss Terrane in excess of 3.6...
, indicate prolonged multi-phased strike-slip movement (relative to the Yilgarn Craton margin) from the late Archaean through to neoproterozoic and even into the Palaeozoic.
Albany-Fraser Orogen
The Yilgarn Craton is bounded on the east-south east by the ~1,300Ma Albany-Fraser Orogen, composed primarily of amphibolite to greenschist facies sedimentary protolithProtolith
Protolith refers to the precursor lithology of a metamorphic rock.For example, the protolith of a slate is a shale or mudstone. Metamorphic rocks can be derived from any other rock and thus have a wide variety of protoliths. Identifying a protolith is a major aim of metamorphic geology.Sedimentary...
gneisses, migmaites and granites. The Albany-Fraser Orogen displays both subduction-related and prolonged strike-slip tectonic structures and is intimately interconnected with the other Proterozoic basins and mobile belts of Australia.
Sedimentary Basin Cover
The Yilgarn Craton is partially covered by onlapping sedimentary basins of Palaeozoic and PhanerozoicPhanerozoic
The Phanerozoic Eon is the current eon in the geologic timescale, and the one during which abundant animal life has existed. It covers roughly 542 million years and goes back to the time when diverse hard-shelled animals first appeared...
age in the east and north-east, including the Canning Basin
Canning Basin
The Canning Basin is a geological basin located in Western Australia.The Basin covers approximately of which approximately is on land...
. It is bounded on the western edge by the Darling Scarp
Darling Scarp
The Darling Scarp, also referred to as the Darling Range or Darling Ranges, is a low escarpment running north-south to the east of the Swan Coastal Plain and Perth, Western Australia...
and Darling Fault
Darling Fault
The Darling Fault is one of the longest and most significant faults in Australia, extending for at least 1500 km in a north–south orientation near the west coast of southern Western Australia. It is a major geological boundary separating the Archaean Yilgarn Craton in the east from the younger...
which separate the Yilgarn Craton from the Perth Basin to the west, and is covered by several remnant sedimentary basins of Jurassic age such as the Collie Sub-Basin.
The Yilgarn Craton also has a considerable Tertiary and younger sedimentary veneer of palaeochannel
Palaeochannel
Palaeochannels or paleochannels are deposits of unconsolidated sediments or semi-consolidated sedimentary rocks deposited in ancient, currently inactive river and stream channel systems. The word palaeochannel is formed from the words "palaeo" or 'old', and channel; ie; a palaeochannel is an old...
deposits derived rom prolonged erosion, sedimentation and redeposition of older cover sequences and regolith as well as the Archaean basement itself.
Recognised Tertiary cover sequences include the Bremer Basin, Officer Basin
Officer Basin
The Officer Basin is a large intracratonic sedimentary basin in Australia, lying across the states of South Australia and Western Australia. It is named after Officer Creek which is a watercourse that drains a small part of the basin. Deposition of up to 10 km of marine and non-marine sedimentary...
etc.
Regolith
The Yilgarn craton is believed to have remained at or above sea level for a considerable length of time. Some of the Yilgarn regolithRegolith
Regolith is a layer of loose, heterogeneous material covering solid rock. It includes dust, soil, broken rock, and other related materials and is present on Earth, the Moon, some asteroids, and other terrestrial planets and moons.-Etymology:...
is the oldest in the world, recording weathering
Weathering
Weathering is the breaking down of rocks, soils and minerals as well as artificial materials through contact with the Earth's atmosphere, biota and waters...
events as early as the Cretaceous
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...
Period. This has been created by the generally subtropical latitudes and conditions of the Yilgarn craton, with minimal to no glaciation and generally flat topographical relief resulting in comparatively minor erosion.
The regolith is extremely deeply weathered, in some areas completely converted to saprolite
Saprolite
Saprolite is a chemically weathered rock. Saprolites form in the lower zones of soil profiles and represent deep weathering of the bedrock surface. In most outcrops its color comes from ferric compounds...
up to 100 metres below surface. This is considered to have been produced during Caenozoic to Palaeocene tropical conditions, as evidenced by mottled duricrust which records fossilised tree roots, some over 60 million years old. Previous weathering events have been recorded in magnetically remnant ferruginous
Iron oxide
Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. All together, there are sixteen known iron oxides and oxyhydroxides.Iron oxides and oxide-hydroxides are widespread in nature, play an important role in many geological and biological processes, and are widely utilized by humans, e.g.,...
laterite
Laterite
Laterites are soil types rich in iron and aluminium, formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are rusty-red because of iron oxides. They develop by intensive and long-lasting weathering of the underlying parent rock...
of a Jurassic
Jurassic
The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...
age, at about 180 Ma.
The regolith of the Yilgarn impacts directly on the flora and fauna, as some of the soil is essentially fossilised. Much of the groundwater of the Yilgarn is hypersaline, with some being supersaturated in salt. This renders swathes of land barren, with significant salt lakes, and high saline water tables. The origin of this salt is thought to be from precipitation of sea salt carried over the Australian landmass for the past several dozen million years, and the high evaporation rate leaving the salt behind.
The greenstone belts of the Yilgarn Craton include:
- Southern Cross Greenstone Belt
- Norseman-Wiluna Belt
- Duketon Belt
- Gullewa Greenstone Belt
Economic geology
The Yilgarn Craton is Australia's premier mineral province. It attracts more than half of Australia's minerals exploration expenditure, and produces two thirds of all gold and most of the nickel mined in Australia. The craton contains some 30% of the world's known gold reserves, about 20% of the world's nickelNickel
Nickel is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile...
reserves, 80% of the world's tantalum
Tantalum
Tantalum is a chemical element with the symbol Ta and atomic number 73. Previously known as tantalium, the name comes from Tantalus, a character in Greek mythology. Tantalum is a rare, hard, blue-gray, lustrous transition metal that is highly corrosion resistant. It is part of the refractory...
reserves, considerable iron ore, copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
, zinc
Zinc
Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
and minor lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
reserves. The craton contains significant platinum
Platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pt and an atomic number of 78. Its name is derived from the Spanish term platina del Pinto, which is literally translated into "little silver of the Pinto River." It is a dense, malleable, ductile, precious, gray-white transition metal...
, vanadium
Vanadium
Vanadium is a chemical element with the symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery gray, ductile and malleable transition metal. The formation of an oxide layer stabilizes the metal against oxidation. The element is found only in chemically combined form in nature...
, hard-rock titanium
Titanium
Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. It has a low density and is a strong, lustrous, corrosion-resistant transition metal with a silver color....
and considerable iron ore resources.
Mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
is conducted mostly in the greenstone belts around mining centres such as Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
Kalgoorlie, known as Kalgoorlie-Boulder, is a town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, and is located east-northeast of state capital Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway...
, Kambalda
Kambalda, Western Australia
Kambalda is a small mining town about 60 kilometres from the mining city of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, within the Goldfields. It is split into two townsites 4 kilometres apart, Kambalda East and Kambalda West; and is located on the western edge of a giant salt lake, Lake Lefroy...
, Norseman
Norseman, Western Australia
Norseman is a town located in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia along the Coolgardie-Esperance Highway, east of Perth and above sea level. It is also the starting point of the Eyre Highway, and the last major town in Western Australia before the South Australian border to the...
, Meekatharra
Meekatharra, Western Australia
Meekatharra is a town in the Mid West region of Western Australia. Meekatharra is an Australian Aboriginal word meaning 'place of little water'. At the 2006 census, Meekatharra had a population of 798, with 44.0% being Aboriginal....
and Wiluna
Wiluna, Western Australia
Wiluna is a complex town in the Mid West region of Western Australia. It is situated on the edge of the Western Desert at the gateway to the Canning Stock Route and Gunbarrel Highway. It is the service centre of the local area for the local Aboriginal people, the pastoral industry, mining, and...
, and minor centres such as Laverton, Leinster
Leinster, Western Australia
Leinster is a town in the northern goldfields area of Western Australia. The town is located 4 km east of the Goldfields Highway, in the Shire of Leonora Local Government Area, northeast of the state capital, Perth...
, Leonora
Leonora, Western Australia
Leonora is a town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, located northeast of the state capital, Perth, and north of the city of Kalgoorlie. At the 2006 census, Leonora had a population of 401, about a third of whom are of Aboriginal descent. The area is extremely arid, with a...
and Southern Cross
Southern Cross, Western Australia
Southern Cross is a town in Western Australia, 371 kilometres east of Perth on the Great Eastern Highway. It was founded by gold prospectors in 1888, and gazetted in 1890. It is the major town and administrative centre of the Shire of Yilgarn...
.
Ore concentrates or finished product are transported by rail or road to Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, Fremantle
Fremantle, Western Australia
Fremantle is a city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829...
, Esperance
Esperance, Western Australia
Esperance is a large town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, located on the Southern Ocean coastline approximately east-southeast of the state capital, Perth. The shire of Esperance is home to 9,536 people as of the 2006 census, its major industries are tourism, agriculture,...
, Albany
Albany, Western Australia
Albany is a port city in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, some 418 km SE of Perth, the state capital. As of 2009, Albany's population was estimated at 33,600, making it the 6th-largest city in the state....
or Geraldton
Geraldton, Western Australia
Geraldton is a city and port in Western Australia located north of Perth in the Mid West region. Geraldton has an estimated population at June 2010 of 36,958...
.
Iron ore
Iron ore is currently recovered from several areas in the Yilgarn Craton, although it is a much smaller set of mines than those in the Pilbara CratonPilbara craton
The Pilbara craton , along with the Kaapvaal craton are the only remaining areas of pristine Archaean 3.6-2.7 Ga crust on Earth...
. Iron ore is mined at Koolyanobbing, north of Kalgoorlie from hematite weathered banded iron formation
Banded iron formation
Banded iron formations are distinctive units of sedimentary rock that are almost always of Precambrian age. A typical BIF consists of repeated, thin layers of iron oxides, either magnetite or hematite , alternating with bands of iron-poor shale and chert...
, at Mount Gibson, Weld Range and Jack Hills
Jack Hills
The Jack Hills are a range of hills in Mid West Western Australia. They are best known as the source of the oldest material of terrestrial origin found to date: zircons that formed around 4.4 billion years ago...
in the Western Gneiss Terrane from hematised BIF to produce direct-shipping ore.
Large magnetite iron ore deposits are being investigated as a source of magnetite
Magnetite
Magnetite is a ferrimagnetic mineral with chemical formula Fe3O4, one of several iron oxides and a member of the spinel group. The chemical IUPAC name is iron oxide and the common chemical name is ferrous-ferric oxide. The formula for magnetite may also be written as FeO·Fe2O3, which is one part...
ore in the Albany-Fraser Complex, where a large deposit is being proposed at Southdown. The Jack Hills, Weld Range and Mount Gibson banded iron formations as well as BIFs around Yalgoo
Yalgoo, Western Australia
-Further reading:* Palmer, Alex. Yalgoo Fremantle, W.A: Lap Industries. ISBN 0959058400- See also :* Yalgoo - the ecological region* Thundelarra* Shire of Yalgoo - the local government region...
are also considered potential sources of magnetite iron ore although no operations are as yet running on this type of ore.
Further away from the coast, BIF deposits at Wiluna and Laverton are also under investigation although infrastructure is considered too poor to render these deposits economic.
Gold
The Yilgarn Craton is host to around 30% of the world's economically demonstrably recoverable reserves (EDR) of gold.Major gold deposits occur at Kalgoorlie, Kambalda, Mount Magnet, Boddington, Laverton and Wiluna, and are hosted in greenstone belts. These form linear belts of mafic, ultramafic and felsic volcanics, intercalated with sedimentary sequences, and have been multiply deformed and metamorphosed. The mode of occurrence of the gold mineralisation tends to be small to medium-sized structurally controlled lodes, shears, and quartz veins.
A key feature of beneath many of the region's gold deposits are granite-cored domes at a range of scales. These provided an architecture that focussed fluids-metals into the upper crust depositional sites. Debate continues on whether oxidised magmatic fluids mixed with a reduced (mantle-deep crustal fluid) at the depositional site.
Signatures of the mantle are found in many (large) deposits, including melts from a metasomatised mantle wedge (enriched Mafic-type granites/porphyries and syenites) as well as lamphrophyres. Debate continues whether these mantle rocks were a fluid and/or metal source, or simply reflect a favourable pathway.
Nickel-PGE Deposits
The greater Kambalda district hosts a world-class nickel sulfide mining district with a total pre-mining resource of 2 megatons (Mt) of nickel metal. Approximately 1.1 Mt of nickel metal has been produced since 1967, at an average rate of 35,000 tons of nickel per year. The Kambalda Dome is located in the south-central part of the Archaean Norseman-Wiluna greenstone belt in the southeastern Yilgarn Craton. Kambalda type komatiitic nickel ore depositsKambalda type komatiitic nickel ore deposits
Kambalda type nickel ore deposits are a class of magmatic nickel-copper ore deposit in which the physical processes of komatiite volcanology serve to enrich, concentrate and deposit nickel-bearing sulfide within the lava flow environment of an erupting komatiite volcano.-Classification:The...
are the primary source of nickel metal within the Yilgarn Craton.
Base Metals
Copper, lead and zinc are currently mined from Golden GroveGolden Grove Mine
The Golden Grove Mine is a copper, lead, silver, zinc and gold mine located 52 km south-south-east of Yalgoo, Western Australia.It is operated by Minerals and Metals Group, which was formed after its parent company, China Minmetals, bought the mine from OZ Minerals in June 2009...
and the newly developed Jaguar zinc mine. Minor amounts of copper have been recovered from several copper-bearing gold deposits such as those in the Gullewa Greenstone Belt, at Burtville south of Laverton, at Granny Smith and elsewhere.
The desert area encircling Kalgoorlie, with an area of 500,000 square kilometres, is theorised to host a 100 million tonne copper-zinc deposit. The geology of several volcanic belts in the Yilgarn Craton are strikingly similar to the world's great base metal mines at Kidd Creek
Kidd creek
Kidd Mine an underground base metal mine in the city of Timmins, Ontario, Canada. It is owned and operated by Xstrata Copper, following the August 2006 takeover of Falconbridge Ltd. Ore from the Kidd mine is processed at the Kidd Metallurgical Site, located southeast of the mine...
in Northern Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Exploration for copper is continuing in several areas around Ravensthorpe, Balagundi, in the Yandall Belt, and the Duketon Belt where large felsic
Felsic
The word "felsic" is a term used in geology to refer to silicate minerals, magma, and rocks which are enriched in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminium, sodium, and potassium....
volcanic packages are known to exist.
Rare Earth elements
The Yilgarn Craton may host up to 60% of the world's recoverable rare earth elementRare earth element
As defined by IUPAC, rare earth elements or rare earth metals are a set of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table, specifically the fifteen lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium...
s, primarily in the Mount Weld
Mount Weld
Mount Weld is a mountain and a mine site in Western Australia, located about 30 km south of Laverton and 120 km east of Leonora. It ranks as one of the richest major rare earth deposits in the world....
Carbonatite
Carbonatite
Carbonatites are intrusive or extrusive igneous rocks defined by mineralogic composition consisting of greater than 50 percent carbonate minerals. Carbonatites may be confused with marble, and may require geochemical verification....
. Smaller carbonatite occurrences at Ponton, near Laverton, and regionally within the eastern granite-gneiss and greenstone belts, may also prove economic.
Uranium
The Yilgarn Craton and its cover sequences are host to a significant percentage of the world's endowment in Economically Demonstrable and Recoverable Reserves (EDR) of uranium. Most uranium is hosted within palaeochannels derived from granites of the Yilgarn Craton and/or its flanking Proterozoic orogens, and this metal is deposited within Tertiary or younger palaeodrainage and current drainage systems. Examples include Yeelirrie, Mulga Rock and Lake Way-Centipede.Partial list of ore deposits and mines
World-class deposits in the eastern Yilgarn Craton include: Mount Charlotte, NorsemanNorseman Gold Mine
The Norseman Gold Mine is a gold mine located at Norseman, Western Australia.It is operated by Norseman Gold Plc and is Australia’s longest continuously running gold mining operation...
, Sunrise Dam
Sunrise Dam Gold Mine
The Sunrise Dam Gold Mine is located 55 km south of Laverton, Western Australia. It is fully owned by AngloGold Ashanti. In 2007, it accounted for 11% of the company's production.The mine is currently the company's only Australian operation...
, Sons of Gwalia
Gwalia Gold Mine
The Gwalia Gold Mine is located at Gwalia, a few kilometres south of Leonora, Western Australia. It was originally established by Welsh miners in the late 19th century and Herbert Hoover, the later President of the United States, served as the mine manager in its early days from May to November...
, St Ives-Kambalda
St Ives Gold Mine
The St Ives Gold Mine is a gold mine located 20 km south-east of Kambalda, Western Australia. It is owned by the South African mining company Gold Fields.It is one of two mines the company operates in Australia, the other being the Agnew Gold Mine....
, Tarmoola
Tarmoola Gold Mine
The Tarmoola Gold Mine is a gold mine located 29 km north-west of Leonora, Western Australia. The mine has been placed in care and maintenance since September 2004, when a pit wall failure forced its closure.It is owned by St Barbara Limited...
, Wallaby
Granny Smith Gold Mine
The Granny Smith Gold Mine is a gold mine located 20 km south of Laverton, Western Australia near Mount Weld.It is operated by Barrick Gold and, since the beginning of 2008, part of its Yilgarn South operation, which consists of Granny Smith, the Lawlers Gold Mine and the Darlot-Centenary Gold...
and Wiluna
Wiluna Gold Mine
The Wiluna Gold Mine is an active gold mine in Western Australia near the town of Wiluna. The mine was active from 1984 till its closure in 2007; when it was put into care and maintenance; and again since late 2008....
. World-class nickel deposits include: Mount Keith, Kambalda and
- Murrin MurrinMurrin Murrin Joint VentureThe Murrin Murrin Joint Venture is a major nickel-cobalt mining operation being conducted in the North Eastern Goldfields, approximately 60 km east of Leonora, Western Australia...
lateritic nickel. - Kambalda nickel mines, Kambalda Dome and Widgiemooltha
- Miitel, Mariners, Redross and Wannaway nickel mines, Widgiemooltha DomeWidgiemooltha KomatiiteThe Widgiemooltha Komatiite is a formation of komatiite in the Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia.- Stratigraphy :The stratigraphy of the Widgiemooltha Komatiite is well known to be part of the regional komatiite magmatic event also seen at the Kambalda Dome, to the north. There are comparisons...
- Emily Ann and Maggie Hays nickel minesEmily Ann and Maggie Hays nickel minesThe Emily Ann and Maggie Hays nickel deposits are situated approximately 150 km west of the town of Norseman, Western Australia, within the Lake Johnston Greenstone Belt....
, Lake Johnston Greenstone Belt - Super PitSuper Pit gold mineThe Fimiston Open Pit, colloquially known as the Super Pit, is Australia's largest open cut gold mine. The Super Pit is located off the Goldfields Highway on the south-east edge of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia. The pit is oblong in shape and is approximately 3.5 kilometres long, 1.5...
or Fimiston Open Cut, Kalgoorlie - Golden Grove MineGolden Grove MineThe Golden Grove Mine is a copper, lead, silver, zinc and gold mine located 52 km south-south-east of Yalgoo, Western Australia.It is operated by Minerals and Metals Group, which was formed after its parent company, China Minmetals, bought the mine from OZ Minerals in June 2009...
Cu-Zn-Au mine - Bronzewing Gold MineBronzewing Gold MineThe Bronzewing Gold Mine is a gold mine located approximately 83 km north-east of Leinster, Western Australia. The mine, owned by Navigator Resources Limited, was, until early 2010, in care and maintenance after its previous owner, View Resources Limited went into administration.The mine is...
- Jundee-Nimary Gold MineJundee Gold MineThe Jundee Gold Mine is an active gold mine in Western Australia, approximately 55 km north east of the town of Wiluna, owned by Newmont Mining.-History:...
- Kanowna Belle Gold MineKanowna Belle Gold MineThe Kanowna Belle Gold Mine is a gold mine located 19 km north east of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, near the ghost town of Kanowna.It is operated by Barrick Gold...
- Windimurra vanadium resource, Windimurra IntrusionWindimurra intrusionThe Windimurra Intrusion is a giant ultramafic-mafic intrusion emplaced within the Yilgarn craton of Western Australia. It is located approximately 100 kilometres south east of the town of Mount Magnet.-Setting:...
, Mount Magnet
See also
- Archaean
- Australian ShieldAustralian ShieldThe Australian Shield, also called the Western Australian Shield or Western Plateau, occupies more than half of the continent of Australia. It occupies the portion of Australia west of a line running north-south roughly from the eastern shore of Arnhem Land on the Bay or Gulf of Carpentaria to the...
- Centralian SuperbasinCentralian SuperbasinThe Centralian Superbasin is a term for a large intracratonic sedimentary basin which is interpreted to have occupied a large area of central, southern and western Australia during much of the Neoproterozoic...
- Gawler cratonGawler cratonThe Gawler Craton covers approximately 440,000 square kilometres of central South Australia. Its Precambrian crystalline basement crustal block was cratonised ca. 1550-1450 Ma...
- Geology of AustraliaGeology of AustraliaAustralia is a continent situated on the Indo-Australian Plate.The geology of Australia includes virtually all known rock types and from all geological time periods spanning over 3.8 billion years of the Earth's history.-Components:...
- Narryer gneiss
- Ore genesisOre genesisThe various theories of ore genesis explain how the various types of mineral deposits form within the Earth's crust. Ore genesis theories are very dependent on the mineral or commodity....
- Perth BasinPerth basinThe Perth Basin is a thick sedimentary basin in Western Australia. It lies beneath the Swan Coastal Plain west of the Darling Scarp, representing the western limit of the much older Yilgarn Craton, and extends further west offshore...
- Pilbara cratonPilbara cratonThe Pilbara craton , along with the Kaapvaal craton are the only remaining areas of pristine Archaean 3.6-2.7 Ga crust on Earth...
- Western PlateauWestern PlateauThe Western Plateau is Australia's largest drainage division and is composed predominantly of the remains of the ancient rock shield of Gondwanaland. It incorporates two thirds of the continent; 2,700,000 square kilometres of arid land including large parts of Western Australia, South Australia,...