Mineral systems characterisation in the context of a new geological framework for the Rover field, Northern Territory

Abstract

The Warramunga Province of the Palaeoproterozoic North Australian Craton in the central Northern Territory is a highly prospective terrane for mineral endowment. A well-known example is the Tennant Creek mineral field, which has a rich history of gold, copper, bismuth, silver, and selenium production. Some 80 km southwest of the Tennant Creek mineral field is the entirely undercover mineralised Rover field, which represents an opportunity to diversify exploration and to boost precious and base metal production in the region. Although the Rover field hosts three deposits containing established mineral resources, the geological framework, nature and timing of mineral systems of the field remains poorly understood.

This study determined that the Rover field basement is composed of three distinct zones (northern, central and western), each hosting a different mineral system.

The northern zone, located above a crustal-scale lithospheric discontinuity, has potential for orthomagmatic copper–nickel mineralisation. The central zone, hosts gold–copper–bismuth mineralisation including the Rover 1 deposit comparable to the Tennant Creek mineral field gold mineralisation. In the western zone, sediment-hosted base metal mineralisation including Explorer 108 is akin to VHMS systems. Additionally, zircon isotopic data, combined with VHMS and mantle-derived mafic magmatism occurring between 1.78–1.73 Ga suggest that crustal extension prevailed in the region during that time. Importantly, the association of mineralisation with younger than previously thought stratigraphy and broadens the exploration search space for a range of commodities and mineralisation styles in the Warramunga Province and undercover extensions.