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Mosquito Creek Belt - Golden Eagle, Blue Spec, Golden Spec, Golden Gate, Barton, Middle Creek Line, |
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Western Australia, WA, Australia |
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Au Sb
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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 Mosquito Creek group of small Archaean greenstone belt type gold mines is located in the southeastern section of the 3650 to 2850 Ma Pilbara Craton in north-west Western Australia. The district encompasses four mining centres, namely Middle Creek-Twenty Sandy, Blue Spec-Billjim, Mosquito Creek and Eastern Creek.
Production from the belt to 1988 totalled 4.82 tonnes of gold at grades averaging 90 g/t Au. Resources in 2001 were 11.57 Mt @ 2.27 g/t Au, making the total production+ resources 31.8 Mt.
The deposits are mainly within a series of generally east-west trending belt parallel structures of the Middle Creek Au and the Blue Spec Sb-Au lines. Unlike the other gold production of the Pilbara which is mainly from mafic volcanic rocks of the 3475 to 3450 Ma Warrawoona Group, the Mosquito Creek group of deposits are hosted by a 120 x 60 km, 5000 m thick belt of multiply deformed metasediments, with five recognised deformation phases.
These sediments are in two tectonostratigraphic units, namely the poorly sorted wacke-siltstone, wacke-sandstone, and interbedded pelite, with lesser conglomerate and pebbly sandstone, of the Mosquito Creek Formation, and a zone to the south that has experienced an additional deformation and comprises phyllite, mica schist and chlorite ± magnetite with associated felsic rocks.
A number of different styles of mineralisation are represented, including competence-controlled strata-bound disseminated style (Golden Eagle), a competence-controlled crosscutting tensional vein-fault style (Otways-Shearers), and a shear zone hosted style (Barton's-Hopetoun North). Mineralisation is mainly present in a series of ferruginous quartz veins.
Production + resources for the individual mines are as follows:
Middle Creek line - 1.053 t Au production + 8.97 Mt @ 1.96 g/t Au resource for a total 18.6 t Au
Golden Eagle - 6.67 Mt @1.96 g/t Au resource for a total 13.1 t Au
Barton - 0.239 t Au production + 0.331 Mt @ 2.5 g/t Au resource for a total 1.06 t Au
Blue Spec line - 2.953 t Au production + 2.60 Mt @ 3.36 g/t Au resource for a total 11.9 t Au
Blue Spec/Golden Spec - 2.356 t Au production + 0.167 Mt @ 21.4 g/t Au resource for a total 5.92 t Au
Golden Gate - 2.43 Mt @ 2.12 g/t Au resource for a total 5.15 t Au
For detail consult the reference(s) listed below.
The most recent source geological information used to prepare this decription was dated: 2002.
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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Blewett R S, Huston D L, Mernagh T P, Kamprad J 2002 - The diverse structure of Archean lode Gold deposits of the southwest Mosquito Creek belt, East Pilbara Craton, Western Australia: in Econ. Geol. v97 pp 787-800
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Gifford A C 1990 - Blue Spec-Golden Spec Gold-Antimony deposits: in Hughes F E (Ed.), 1990 Geology of the Mineral Deposits of Australia & Papua New Guinea The AusIMM, Melbourne Mono 14, v1 pp 155-158
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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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