The results from NTGS Record 2025-003 indicate that the stratigraphic interval underlying the Limbunya Group was deposited at or before 2.06 Ga—predating all known units in the Tanami Region, including the 1.86–1.82 Ga Tanami and Ware groups and the 1.87 Ga Inverway Metamorphics. Rather than belonging to the Tanami Region these rocks may instead correlate with the Woodcutters Supergroup of the Pine Creek Orogen, suggesting that Paleoproterozoic rocks equivalent in age to the highly prospective Central Domain of the Pine Creek Orogen extend southward beneath the Birrindudu Basin.
The data also record multiple metamorphic and thermal events: deformation between 1.86–1.70 Ga, a thermal overprint around 1.62 Ga during Birrindudu Basin deposition, and a previously unrecognised Triassic thermal or hydrothermal event.
The Palaeoproterozoic deformation suggests this terrane was affected by tectonic events that occurred regionally throughout the North Australian Craton at this time and were associated with mineralizing events in the Pine Creek Orogen and Tanami Region.
These findings open new possibilities for regional correlations and mineral potential.
To find out more download NTGS Record 2025-003 via GEMIS