The Undercover Eastern Fold Belt Project is an Industry-University-Government Project in which industry partners (South32, Minotaur Exploration & Sandfire Resources) have, without cost, made available to the Project, under Confidentiality Agreements, their extensive, detailed and technically-invaluable geophysical, geological and drillhole data to allow the generation of a high fidelity, solid geological interpretation in a highly-base-metal-prospective, covered southern portion of the Eastern Fold Belt. Interpretation was carried out at the W.H. Bryan Mining & Geology Research Centre (BRC) between March and June, 2018 by Mark Hinman whose position at BRC has been supported by funding from the Compilation Project of the Queensland Government’s Northwest Queensland Mineral Province Discovery effort.

The Undercover Eastern Fold Belt Project has developed a refined, subsurface solid geological interpretation that has tracked highly-prospective Mount Norna Quartzite and Toole Creek Volcanic packages under cover to the south of the world-class, Cannington Ag-Pb-Zn mine. The products of this interpretation are aimed at reducing the risk of deep, under-cover exploration for both BHT-style Ag-Pb-Zn and IOCG-ISCG-style Cu-Au systems in the southern extensions of the Eastern Fold Belt, Mount Isa. Domains of lower metamorphic grade packages, previously regarded as prospective equivalents of the Mount Norna Quartzite and Toole Creek Volcanic packages, have been re-appraised leveraging the detailed drilling and geophysical data confidentially-available to the Project. Development of a conceptual, process-oriented model for BHT-style mineral systems in the Eastern Fold Belt has been discussed and potential tectono-stratigraphic-magmatic ‘essential ingredients’ outlined.

 

 

The Final Report and GIS data packages resulting from this Industry-BRC-Government Collaborative Project are available for download from the DNRME-GSQ-QDEX Data system:

http://qdexdata.dnrme.qld.gov.au/QDEXDataDownloadManager/Results?type=Report&id=108143