Lithospheric and crustal-scale controls on multi-stage basin evolution: Impacts on mineralising systems

The Challenge

The deformed rocks of Western Australia’s Yeneena Basin host significant gold and copper. This mineralisation was influenced by both the structural and sedimentary fabric of the basin, but these key mineralisation controls are obscured by later cover rocks, leaving the mineral potential of this province under-explored.

Key Findings

This project has changed understanding of the dynamic history of the sedimentary sequence filling the Yeneena Basin, providing significant new insights including clarification of:

• Sediment sources, and how these changed as the basin filled;
• Changing depositional environments in which different units were laid down, and;
• Stratigraphic relationships between sediments in different parts of the basin

These insights force a reinterpretation of the basin as a relay ramp structure, linking extensional faults active as a proto-Western Australian landmass underwent large-scale rifting.

Benefits to WA

These insights into sediment transport, source regions, and structural framework enhance predictive mineral exploration models for sediment-hosted copper systems across the highly prospective Paterson Orogen region. This improved understanding offers to reduce exploration risk and cost, encouraging investment in exploration to locate the next generation of ore bodies in the region.

Report DOI

DOI: 10.71342/973422762704