Basins and basin-hosted base metal deposits of the North Australian Craton

Speaker:  Associate Professor Karen Connors, W.H. Bryan Mining & Geology Research Centre, Sustainable Minerals Institute

Abstract:  The North Australian Craton (NAC) forms the basement, or foundation, to a series of basins that host world-class base metal deposits. In order to better understand the mineral systems of these base metal deposits, we need to understand the evolution of their host basins which is strongly influenced by the underlying basement. The composition, age, and early history of each basement terrane of the NAC will dictate the intensity and character of the structural fabric which will in turn dictate the manner in which the crust deforms during major periods of extension or compression. This rheology, or mechanical behaviour, of the basement controls the rate of subsidence and geometry of each phase of the evolving basin. The vast Isa Superbasin, and its equivalents, extends across much of the NAC. Although the basin is vast, the depocentres are localised along older basement features. Formation of base metal deposits occurred throughout the basin evolution during a series of tectonic events that controlled the depositional stages.

Bio:  Karen Connors is a Principal Research Fellow at The University of Queensland. She has 30 years’ experience in the mining and petroleum sectors, including a long term role as Managing Principal Consultant with Frogtech Geoscience in Canberra, and earlier roles in gold mining and exploration in Western Australia. She specialises in integrated geological interpretation of basins, basement, and crustal architecture, using potential field geophysics, seismic, and well data.