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Mt Chalmers
Queensland, Qld, Australia
Main commodities: Cu Au Zn Ag


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Mount Chalmers is a small high grade volcanic hosted massive sulphide deposit near Rockhampton in East Queensland, Australia.   It is some 60 km to the east of the great Mt Morgan Cu-Au deposit which is hosted by similar volcanics.

Mt Chalmers is hosted by rhyodacitic pyroclastics of the Permian Berserker Beds, deposited within the New England Orogen. The Berserker Beds are a complex unit of graded, mass flow emplaced, pumiceous breccias, volcanolithic sandstone units, graded polymict, feldspar phyric pumiceous breccias, rhyolite intrusives, coherent to auto-brecciated rhyolite flows and their autoclastic products, andesitic intrusives, lavas and their autoclastic products.

Mineralisation is present as two parallel elongate lodes, each composed of an upper massive and partly banded Cu-Au-Zn-Ag-barite lens and a lower Cu-Au bearing stringer sulphide zone.   The upper band of each lens appears to grade down slope over a limited lateral interval into a bedded carbonate-pyrite band.

The two lodes are shallowly dipping, the Main Lode being draped over the crest of a 300 m diameter siliceous pyroclastic dome, while the West Lode is on the western flank of the same dome.   The dome has a relative relief of 120 m.

Proved + Probable Reserves prior to mining in 1980 totalled 3.86 Mt @ 1.65% Cu, 1.87 g/t Au.

Although the deposit had been initially exploited from 1890 as an underground copper, gold and silver mine and smelting operation, larger scale open-pit operations did not commence until 1980, and ceased when the mine was placed into care and maintenance in 1982. Mining commenced in March 1979, with the ore being treated at Mount Morgan.

The most recent source geological information used to prepare this decription was dated: 1980.    
This description is a summary from published sources, the chief of which are listed below.
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    Selected References
Large R R  1992 - Australian volcanic-hosted massive sulfide deposits: features, styles, and genetic models: in    Econ. Geol.   v87 pp 471-510
Large R R, Both R A  1980 - The vocanogenic sulfide ores at Mount Chalmers, eastern Queensland: in    Econ. Geol.   v75 pp 992-1009
Sainty R A  1992 - Shallow-water stratigraphy at the Mount Chalmers volcanic-hosted massive sulfide deposit, Queensland, Australia: in    Econ. Geol.   v87 pp 812-824
Taube A  1990 - Mount Chalmers Gold-Copper deposits: in Hughes F E (Ed.), 1990 Geology of the Mineral Deposits of Australia & Papua New Guinea The AusIMM, Melbourne   Mono 14, v2 pp 1493-1497


Porter GeoConsultancy Pty Ltd (PorterGeo) provides access to this database at no charge.   It is largely based on scientific papers and reports in the public domain, and was current when the sources consulted were published.   While PorterGeo endeavour to ensure the information was accurate at the time of compilation and subsequent updating, PorterGeo, its employees and servants:   i). do not warrant, or make any representation regarding the use, or results of the use of the information contained herein as to its correctness, accuracy, currency, or otherwise; and   ii). expressly disclaim all liability or responsibility to any person using the information or conclusions contained herein.

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