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This is the fifth in a series of papers discussing the stratigraphic controls on structures and gold mineralisation in Victoria. The Nerrina (or Little Bendigo) goldfield is the northern third of the Ballarat goldfield. However, despite being practically along strike from the Ballarat East goldfield...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2009
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.680.7177 http://new.aig.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/AIGnews_Aug09.pdf |
| Summary: | This is the fifth in a series of papers discussing the stratigraphic controls on structures and gold mineralisation in Victoria. The Nerrina (or Little Bendigo) goldfield is the northern third of the Ballarat goldfield. However, despite being practically along strike from the Ballarat East goldfield, the stratigraphy, structures and quartz veining at Nerrina are completely different. The tight folding at Ballarat East is not seen at Nerrina. Instead the entire goldfield lies on a broad west-dipping fold limb. This limb is devoid of significant faults, unlike Ballarat East where west-dipping and crosscourse faults are common. Quartz at Nerrina is stratabound within shales 2-25m thick. Such shales are virtually absent at Ballarat East. The mineralisation within the west-dipping shales continues well below the historic workings. Only 3 % of more than 1,000 mapped shafts have recorded production. While historic records show that only 120,000 oz of gold came from the Nerrina goldfield, the vast alluvial workings and large number of primary workings suggest that this grossly underestimates the gold endowment of the area. The alluvial workings link to major deep lead systems flowing southwards into Ballarat and northwards into the Berry leads system that produced 1.7 Moz of gold. The well-rounded and spherical quartz on the Berry dumps can be traced back to Nerrina, but it is uncertain how much of the alluvial gold can too. --- oooo0oooo --- |
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