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Identification of a new ca. 1660 Ma Au-Cu-Bi metallogenic event at Tennant Creek

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

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High-grade gold (Au), copper (Cu) and bismuth (Bi) ores in the Tennant Creek goldfield have been mined from hydrothermal magnetite and/or hematite-rich ironstone bodies. Less well known is a style of Au-Cu-Bi mineralisation hosted by quartz vein systems within shear zones outside ironstones. Sensitive High Resolution Ion Micro Probe (SHRIMP) U-Pb-Th analyses of hydrothermal monazite [(LREE)PO4] associated with this mineralisation style at the Orlando East Au-Cu-Bi deposit and Navigator 6 Au prospect yield ages of 1659 ± 13 Ma and 1659 ± 15 Ma, respectively. These ages are nearly 200 million years younger than the age established from ironstone-hosted ores in the district. This new result widens the exploration ‘search space’ for gold into rock formations previously regarded as too young to host this style of mineralisation. Citation: Skirrow, R.G., Cross, A.J., Magee, C.W., Lecomte, A., and Mercadier, J., 2020. Identification of a new ca. 1660 Ma Au-Cu-Bi metallogenic event at Tennant Creek. In: Czarnota, K., Roach, I., Abbott, S., Haynes, M., Kositcin, N., Ray, A. and Slatter, E. (eds.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts, Geoscience Australia, Canberra, 1–4.

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Field Value
Title Identification of a new ca. 1660 Ma Au-Cu-Bi metallogenic event at Tennant Creek
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/0ee0818c-0a74-4f66-a812-5527b02b02e3
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 08/04/2019
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Identification of a new ca. 1660 Ma Au-Cu-Bi metallogenic event at Tennant Creek". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/identification-of-a-new-ca-1660-ma-au-cu-bi-metallogenic-event-at-tennant-creek