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Cargo

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Porphyry copper deposit in New South Wales, Australia

Names and other identifiers

GMRAP ID 572
Tract name Macquarie (009pCu8002)
Site status deposit

Geographic location

Country Australia
State or province New South Wales
Geographic location 148.8012, -33.4287
Geologic map unit 148.8012, -33.4287
Nearby data
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Geologic information

Deposit type Porphyry copper
Age determination method Geologic inference
Age range ~450–445 Ma
Age reference Cooke and others (2007)
Minerals azurite/malachite, bornite, carbonate, chalcocite/digenite, chalcopyrite, chlorite, chrysocolla, copper, covellite, cuprite, epidote, goethite/limonite, gold, hematite, magnetite, molybdenite, neotocite, pyrite, sericite
Associated rocks calc-alkaline volcanics and sedimentary rocks, andesite porphyry, basalt, trachyandesite, tuff, shale, siltstone, limestone, dacite to rhyodacite porphyry, quartz diorite, intrusion breccia with quartz-monzonite (monzodiorite to syenite) matrix
Tectonic setting island arc
Stratigraphic age Late Ordovician

Commodity and development information

Development status Prospect
Major commodities Cu, Au
Minor commodities Mo
Tonnage (Mt) 27Mt
Cu grade (%) 0.2%
Contained copper 54,000t
Gold-Moly ratio -9999

Reference information

Comments Intercept at 28 m at 1.0 g/t Au. Cu tonnage and grade (Singer and others (2008); location, Au resource (3.7 Mt at 1.24 g/t Au) from Geoscience Australia, 2010). Exposed; production 1870 to1904 of 318 kg Au and 10 t Cu. Radial veins with 30 to 102 g/t Au; alluvial placers at 6 to 40 g/t Au. Classified as porphyry copper with gold mineralization described by Torrey and White (1998). Central zone of elevated Cu, Mo, peripheral gold halo, and outer zinc-rich zone. Concentric, porph-style potassic, phyllic, propylitic alteration; NW-zone of sheeted quartz veins stockwork of barren qtz veinlets. Late radial qtz-carbonate-Au veins. Calc-alkaline porph Cu-Mo system w/ late, peripheral epithermal Au veins. Au placers.
Study area name Australia
References Carr and others (1995); Torrey and White (1998); Richardson and others (1983); Golden Cross Resources (2009); Cooke and others (2007); Singer and others (2008); Geoscience Australia (2010); Perkins and others (1995)
Site reference Bookstrom and others (2014)
Carr, G.R., Dean, J.A., Suppel, D.W., and Heithersay, P.S., 1995, Precise lead isotope fingerprinting of hydrothermal activity associated with Ordovician to Carboniferous metallogenic events in the Lachlan fold belt of New South Wales: Economic Geology, v. 90, p. 1467–1505. (Also available at http://dx.doi.org/10.2113/gsecongeo.90.6.1467.)Cooke, D.R., Wilson, A.J., House, M.J., Wolfe, R.C., Walshe, J.L., Lickfold, Vanessa., and Crawford, A.J., 2007, Alkalic porphyry Au-Cu and associated mineral deposits of the Ordovician to Early Silurian Macquarie arc, New South Wales: Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, v. 54, p. 445–463. (Also available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08120090601146771.)Geoscience Australia, 2010, Australian mines atlas: Geoscience Australia Web page accessed October 20–December 27, 2010, at http://www.australianminesatlas.gov.au/.Golden Cross Resources, 2009, Cargo: Golden Cross Resources Web page accessed August 18, 2010, at http://www.goldencross.com.au/projects/cargo/default.html.Perkins, Caroline, Walshe, J.L., and Morrison, Gregg, 1995, Metallogenic episodes of the Tasman fold belt system, eastern Australia: Economic Geology, v. 90, p. 1443–1466. (Also available at http://dx.doi.org/10.2113/gsecongeo.90.6.1443.)
Richardson, S.J., Bowman, H.N., Paterson, I.B.L., and Hobbs, J.J., 1983, Disseminated copper-gold mineralization at Cargo: Geological Survey of New South Wales Records, v. 21, no. 2, p. M29–M52.
Singer, D.A., Berger, V.I., and Moring, B.C., 2008, Porphyry copper deposits of the world—Database and grade and tonnage models, 2008: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2008-1155, [45] p. and digital data, accessed December 31, 2013, at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2008/1155/.
Torrey, C.E., and White, P.D., 1998, Porphyry copper and gold mineralization at Cargo, NSW: Geological Society of Australia, Australian Geological Convention, 14th, Townsville, July 1998, Abstracts No. 49, p. 442.