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Wauchope wolfram field, Northern Territory

Created 16/10/2025

Updated 16/10/2025

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Wauchope wolfram field* is situated 260 miles by road north of Alice Springs, Northern Territory. Wolfram occurs in a series of quartz reefs the series is traceable over a strike-length of 3,000ft and the reefs are 6in. to i8in. thick. The main production has come from three reefs 12in. to 18in. thick. The field was discovered in 1917 and, from then until 1941, the deposits were worked at such times as tungsten prices were favourable (Fig. 2). Most of the mining was done on tributing basis, and the exploitation of the field was rather unsystematic. Production during that time was approximately 1,000 tons} of concentrate, obtained from an estimated 10,000 tons of quartz mined. Mining had ceased when the Commonwealth Government took over the field in April, 1942, and there were no accessible working faces. Employing Chinese labour, the Government drove 2,800ft. of exploratory and developmental adits, drives, and rises and stoped a small amount of ore. Five drill holes aggregating 1,108ft. tested the reefs ahead of the workings. The results of the testings were disappointing. It was found that payable Ore was largely confined to one shoot (Shoot A) with a maximum strike-length of 300ft and extending down-dip for 120ft. to 200ft. from which most of the ore had been extracted. The shoot occurs near the outcrop of the vein system, and the long axis is roughly parallel to the outcrop. Vein-contouring shows that it is situated in a structural basin in the beds and reefs (which are mainly parallel to the bedding) of 151 samples taken from the quartz remaining within the structurally favourable ground, the weighted mean content was 0.96 per cent WO, Ore from within the shootlimits yielded 1.2 per cent W0 3. On the basis of these figures it was estimated that, when the Government ceased mining at the end of 1943, 5,000 tons of quartz averaging 1.2 per cent recoverable W03 remained in Shoot A (Plates 4 and 5).

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Field Value
Title Wauchope wolfram field, Northern Territory
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/5432575c-21ff-4bdf-a940-1f3476e287e5
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 20/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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      ],
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        134.5,
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      ],
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        -20.5
      ],
      [
        134.0,
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      ],
      [
        134.0,
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      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Wauchope wolfram field, Northern Territory". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/wauchope-wolfram-field-northern-territory