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Castlemaine - Chewton Goldfield, Wattle Gully |
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Victoria, Vic, Australia |
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Au
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Super Porphyry Cu and Au
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IOCG Deposits - 70 papers
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All papers now Open Access.
Available as Full Text for direct download or on request. |
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The Wattle Gully gold deposit is located within the Castlemaine-Chewton gold field in central Victoria, Australia, approximately 100 km north-west of Melbourne. The gold field has produced over 100 t of gold, mainly from deep lead alluvial deposits. Wattle Gully is the largest and deepest reef mine in the field having yielded 1.23 Mt of ore in total since 1858 at a grade of 10.5 g/t Au.
The Castlemaine-Chewton gold field is within the Bendigo-Ballarat zone of central Victoria which has produced more than 800 t of Au from quartz veins.
The host sequence at Wattle Gully is composed of Ordovician marine clastic sediments, mainly slates from less than a metre to 40 m thick, interbedded slate and sandstone and beds of fine grained sandstone beds, all of which are graded and turbiditic. These sediments are of lower greenschist metamorphic facies and folded into upright asymmetric folds trending north-south with 100 to 600 m wavelengths and a northerly plunge of around 20° although local reversals form domes. These rocks are intruded by the 361 Ma Harcourt Granite on the north and northeastern flanks of the goldfield some 5 km from Wattle Gully.
The Wattle Gully anticline is the dominant structure in the mine area, striking at 355° and plunging at 15°N with west and east limbs dipping 70°W and 70°E respectively. Drag on faults has produced local overturning. The dominant structure enclosing the orebody is a 45°W dipping, reverse fault striking at 20° east of the bedding and traversing the Wattle Gully anticline with an 80 m heave. Where the fault traverses the west limb of the Wattle Gully Anticline and adjacent anticline to the east it is close to parallel to bedding. Quartz vein development is related to the deposition of quartz within fault related dilatant fracture zones (containing sigmoidal gash veining) with intense development of hydraulic fracture extension vein arrays and complex repeated crack-seal textures. The veins appear to be best developed where they cut across bedding on the east limb of the anticline. Other faults are developed above and below the main structure, subparallel to it, and intersecting with it.
Disseminated arsenopyrite is common within 20 m of major veins and pyrite is common to several metres. Sulphides are about 2% of the ore, the most common being pyrite and arsenopyrite.
For detail consult the reference(s) listed below.
The most recent source geological information used to prepare this decription was dated: 1997.
This description is a summary from published sources, the chief of which are listed below.
© Copyright Porter GeoConsultancy Pty Ltd. Unauthorised copying, reproduction, storage or dissemination prohibited.
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Cox S F, Sun S-S, Etheridge M A, Wall V J, Potter T F, 1995 - Structural and geochemical controls on the development of Turbidite-hosted Gold Quartz vein deposits, Wattle Gully mine, central Victoria, Australia: in Econ. Geol. v90 pp 1722-1746
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Forde A and Bell T H 1994 - Late structural control of mesothermal vein-hosted gold deposits in central Victoria, Australia: Mineralization mechanisms and exploration potential : in Ore Geology Reviews v9 pp 33-59
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Phillips G N and Hughes M J, 1996 - The geology and gold deposits of the Victorian gold province : in Ore Geology Reviews v11 pp 255-302
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Phillips, G.N. and Hughes, M.J., 1998 - Victorian gold province: in Berkman D A, Mackenzie D H (Ed.s), 1998 Geology of Australian & Papua New Guinean Mineral Deposits The AusIMM, Melbourne Mono 22 pp. 495-506.
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Potter T F 1990 - Wattle Gully Gold deposits: in Hughes F E (Ed.), 1990 Geology of the Mineral Deposits of Australia & Papua New Guinea The AusIMM, Melbourne Mono 14, v2 pp 1281-1285
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Willman C E, 2007 - Regional structural controls of gold mineralisation, Bendigo and Castlemaine goldfields, Central Victoria, Australia : in Mineralium Deposita v42 pp 449-463
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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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