Mineral Sand Resource Potential of the Murray Basin

Abstract

The Murray Basin, in south-eastern Australia, is proving to be a major mineral sand province. The discoveries being made are opportune because of the depletion of the available mineral sand resources on Australia's east coast. Rutile, zircon and ilmenite concentrations occur as beach placers in the Pliocene Loxton-Parilla Sands in the upper part of the Murray Basin sedimentary sequence. These formed as 400 km-long barrier complexes in the Murravian Gulf under the action of long period swell waves that entered from the south-west. Progradation was a response to sea level fluctuations linked to Milankovitch climatic cycles. In most parts of the area, the resulting 400 km wide barrier strand plain is now overlain by fluvial, aeolin and lacustrine deposits. The distribution of mineral sand occurrences in the Murray Basin seems to be related to two aspects of the regions geology that help identify areas with increased mineral prospectivity: - (1) growth faulting with deposits occurring on upfaulted blocks, and - (2) a zone bordering the central part of the basin where the Pliocene barriers were derived from underlying Miocene sands that probably already contained some mineral concentrations.

Reference

Whitehouse J., Roy P. S., & Oakes G. M. 1999. Mineral Sand Resources Potential of the Murray Basin. New South Wales Department of Mineral Resources. pp 73.

Comments

Mineral Sand Resources Potential of the Murray Basin.