Ernest Henry mine
One of Australia's largest copper-gold mines, 36 km north-east of Cloncurry in north-west Queensland. Its ore is an iron-oxide copper-gold deposit, the second largest of its kind in Australia after Olympic Dam. It formed about 1.5 billion years ago in volcanic rocks more than 200 million years older, and lies hidden beneath about 30 m of much younger marine sediment.
Dated events and their evidence
- about 1,750,000,000 years ago mainstream
the felsic to intermediate volcanic rocks of the Mount Fort Constantine Formation, which later host the ore, are laid down, about 1,760 to 1,740 million years ago source - about 1,650,000,000 years ago mainstream
the Ernest Henry diorite intrudes the volcanic rocks, about 1,650 million years ago, the last known magmatism nearby before the copper-gold ore source - about 1,600,000,000 years ago mainstream
the polyphase Isan Orogeny deforms and metamorphoses the host rocks, over about 1,600 to 1,500 million years ago source - about 1,540,000,000 years ago mainstream
copper-gold mineralisation, dated to about 1,540-1,500 million years ago in published work (Mark et al. 2006, as cited by Steadman et al. 2022); apatite in and around the deposit gives U-Pb dates from 1,580 ± 34 to 1,533 ± 61 million years source - 1998 CE mainstream
commercial mining begins at Ernest Henry, as an open-cut mine; plans to move underground follow in 2009 source - 2023 CE mainstream
March: flood water enters the site and the mine closes for six weeks source
Where
20.4476° S, 140.7136° E
The point is Wikipedia's position for the mine.
Sources
- https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2022.926114
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Henry_mine
- https://ozgeology.com/blogs/news/one-of-the-richest-gold-copper-discoveries-in-australian-history-ernest-henry
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