Mossman orogenic gold province in north Queensland, Australia: regional metallogenic controls and undiscovered gold endowment

Spatial data analysis of mineral deposit point patterns: Applications to exploration targeting

“…Results of Fry analysis for the geometric centres of ore fields each containing N0.1 t of gold (derived from Lisitsin et al, 2013) confirm the presence of the dominant south-easterly trend for significant mineralisation of both gold-antimony and gold-quartz vein styles (Fig. 6).…”

“…Notably, the mineralised zone does not correspond to any obvious geological feature, trending at a low angle to most of the surface geological structures. Lisitsin et al (2014) concluded that the metallogenic zone is controlled by a major deep crustal domain boundary, independently inferred on the basis of coincident changes in the geochronology and geochemistry of Carboniferous to Permian felsic magmatic rocks and regional metamorphic grades, supported by crustal seismic data (Korsch et al, 2012). The inferred deep crustal domain boundary, represented by the boundary between the Herberton and Tate Igneous subprovinces , has the strongest spatial association with known significant gold deposits compared to any other geological feature recognised in the region (Fig.…”

“…Those deposits, often spatially associated with stibnite-quartz veins (a third distinct mineralisation style, relatively minor in terms of associated gold endowment), can be classified as epizonal orogenic and are described in this paper as gold-antimony (Au-Sb) deposits. More detailed discussions of orogenic gold mineralisation in the Hodgkinson Province can be found in Denaro (2013), Lisitsin et al (2013Lisitsin et al ( , 2014, Lisitsin and Pitcairn (in press) and references therein.…”

“…Such occurrence clusters were defined as ore fields (Fig. 2b) -groups of adjacent mineral occurrences and deposits of the same mineralisation style less than 1.6 km apart (Lisitsin et al, 2013(Lisitsin et al, , 2014. Their spatial distribution was a major focus of the spatial data analysis discussed in this paper.…”

“…No significant deposits have been discovered under younger cover, which effectively masked any existing covered deposits from past exploration. No orogenic gold occurrences have been documented in the spatially extensive Carboniferous and Permian magmatic rocks, which were probably emplaced after the bulk of orogenic gold mineralisation (Lisitsin et al, 2014). The study area was therefore defined as a geometrically complex region of the exposed Siluro-Devonian volcanosedimentary rocks of the Hodgkinson Province.…”