From Geoscience Australia
JSON format icon JSON RDF format icon RDF ISO19115-3 XML

Ages of granites and associated mineralisation in the Herberton tinfield of northeast Queensland

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

JSON format icon JSON RDF format icon RDF ISO19115-3 XML

Rb-Sr isotopic data reveal a close temporal association between ore deposits and the emplacement of Upper Palaeozoic granitic intrusions in the Herberton tinfield of northeast Queensland. Three main granite types are present: Elizabeth Creek type, consisting mainly of leucocratic biotite adamellite and ranging in age from 292 or 299 m.y. to 320 m.y.; Herbert River type, mainly granodiorite and isotopically dated at 278 to 315 m.y.; and 280 m.y. old Mareeba type, which consists mainly of biotite adamellite. Six mineralising events have been detected, all but the youngest being related to Elizabeth Creek Granite. The oldest, about 320 m.y. ago, was associated with intrusion of apparently small granite bodies southwest and southeast of Irvinebank. The next, at 314 m.y., accompanied the intrusion of the main mass of Elizabeth Creek Granite in the Emuford-Watsonville-Coolgarra area. A slightly later event, at 309 m.y., was associated with the emplacement of petrographically similar granite near Herberton. Mineralisation in the Wolfram Camp and Bamford Hill areas appears to have taken place about 303 m.y. ago. All of these events were characterised by greisen formation. A subsequent mineralisation in the Herberton area, at about 297 m.y., is related to a fine-grained phase of Elizabeth Creek Granite, and is characterised by chloritic alteration. The youngest dated event, in which hydrothermal alteration led to the production of fine-grained green biotite, occurred at about 284 m.y., and may be related to an intrusion of Mareeba-type granite. None of the major economic products (Sn, W, Cu, Pb, Ag) were confined to a single mineralising event: tin deposits, for example, were formed during at least five of the six episodes, and tungsten during at least four.

Files and APIs

Tags

Additional Info

Field Value
Title Ages of granites and associated mineralisation in the Herberton tinfield of northeast Queensland
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/89c4a502-7861-49fc-bc2b-d2422dfea601
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 20/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        144.4,
        -17.75
      ],
      [
        145.5,
        -17.75
      ],
      [
        145.5,
        -17.0
      ],
      [
        144.4,
        -17.0
      ],
      [
        144.4,
        -17.75
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Ages of granites and associated mineralisation in the Herberton tinfield of northeast Queensland". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/ages-of-granites-and-associated-mineralisation-in-the-herberton-tinfield-of-northeast-queenslan