So predictable; a remarkably uniform episode of lode-gold mineralisation along the Mougooderra Shear Zone, Western Australia

摘要

Mineral exploration in the Murchison Domain in the Archaean Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia, is particularly difficult. A combination of minimal (< 5 %) outcrop, thick transported cover (up to 30 m) and a high degree of weathering provide further challenges for those exploring for lode-gold mineralisation in a highly prospective, albeit obscured, terrane (Van Kra-nendonk et al. 2013). The 2.95-2.8 Ga Yalgoo-Single-ton Greenstone Belt comprises a typical Archaean supracrustal succession of metavolcanic and metasedi-mentary rocks, intruded by thick mafic-ultramafic sills (Watkins and Hickman 1990; Van Kranendonk et al. 2013). The belt is dissected by a number of structures including the unexposed ~60 km Mougooderra Shear Zone (MSZ), host to most of the belts current 1 Moz gold resource. Despite its endowment, the geometry and kinematics of this structure and its contained lode-gold mineralisation have long been poorly understood.