A flagship project under Resourcing the Territory has culminated with the release of a final record characterising the framework geology and mineral systems of the Rover field.
This project used a range of techniques to understand this entirely covered terrane located to the southwest of the Tennant Creek mineral field in the Warramunga Province. This study found that the Rover field is composed of three distinct zones, each hosting different mineral systems. The northern zone, located above a crustal-scale lithospheric discontinuity, has potential for orthomagmatic copper–nickel mineralisation. The central zone, hosts gold–copper–bismuth mineralisation including the Rover 1 deposit comparable to the Tennant Creek mineral field gold mineralisation. In the western zone, sediment-hosted base metal mineralisation including Explorer 108 is akin to VHMS systems. Additionally, zircon isotopic data, combined with VHMS and mantle-derived mafic magmatism occurring between 1.78–1.73 Ga suggest that crustal extension prevailed in the region during that time. Importantly, the association of mineralisation with younger than previously thought stratigraphy and broadens the exploration search space for a range of commodities and mineralisation styles in the Warramunga Province and undercover extensions.
Download NTGS Record 2023-010: Mineral systems characterisation in the context of a new geological framework for the Rover field, Northern Territory through GEMIS.