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Report Book 2010/5

Nullarbor Regional Reserve and surrounds; a brief overview of mineral potential
Geological Survey Branch, Mineral Resources Group

Report Book 2010/5

Executive summary

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Nullarbor Regional Reserve and surrounds; a brief overview of mineral potential (.pdf 22.92Mb, opens in new window)
This Report Book contains a brief overview of the mineral prospectivity of the Nullarbor Regional Reserve and Nullarbor National Park and surrounds which the Geological Survey of South Australia, Primary Industries and Resources South Australia, compiled as part of advice for the Wilderness Advisory Committee's Wilderness Assessment Report for the Proposed Nullarbor Wilderness Protection Area.

The Nullarbor Regional Reserve stretches from the western edge of the Gawler Craton at the boundary of the Yellabinna Regional reserve, south of the Trans Australian Railway and west to the WA border.

Prospectivity analysis is challenging due to limited basement outcrop and drilling, and low resolution geophysical data. The conclusions of this report and the degree of confidence in the evaluation are therefore very low in some areas resulting in an unknown mineral potential.

The Reserve is located in the Tertiary Eucla Basin which overlays the Officer Basin, the western margin of the Gawler Craton and the majority of the poorly known Coompana Block.

Four mineral systems are recognised as having the highest priority for mineral exploration. In the basement rocks these include orogenic gold and/or copper–gold, intrusive nickel–copper and iron ore. In the younger near surface environment within the Eucla Basin Tertiary landscape there is a high prospectivity for heavy mineral sand (HMS) deposits. A lower prospectivity zone is recognised in the central portion of the Nullabor Regional Reserve, in part due to lack of information, but also reflecting the higher prospectivity for intrusion-related mineral systems around geophysical basement targets, and HMS potential to the east.