NTGS has released a new record as part of its ongoing investigations to improve the understanding of the stratigraphy of the polymetallic Pine Creek Orogen (PCO). New insights on the lithostratigraphy are crucial for understanding the evolution of the PCO and its many mineral systems.
This record provides detailed petrographic descriptions as well as sample images and photomicrographs for 42 rock samples across key stratigraphic units within the main mineralised corridor of the PCO. Also included are two samples from drill hole LBD2 that intersects basement beneath the Palaeo-Mesoproterozoic Birrindudu Basin suggesting stratigraphy that may be coeval with PCO rocks.
Highlights include the identification of tourmalinites, indicative of formation due to exhalative processes, as well as widespread tourmaline across many stratigraphic units indicative of significant boron. Graphite is common, and in some instances associated with tourmalinite. A graphitic schist was identified in the basement to the Birrindudu Basin in drill hole LBD2.
This new record provides important data to understand the petrogenesis, and thermal and deformational history of the units that host the many mineral deposits across the PCO.
NTGS Record 2025-001 Petrographic characterisation of samples from the Pine Creek Orogen and drill hole LBD2, Northern Territory is now available via GEMIS.