Preface

Abstract

The material presented in this volume covers all the important deposits and types of mineralisation in South Australia and most papers are potentially of wider significance. For example, in additional to the world-class Olympic Dam copper-uranium-gold-silver-REE deposit, there is a comprehensive coverage of Proterozoic iron-oxide copper-gold deposits, e.g. Prominent Hill, Portia/North Portia, White Dam, Kalkaroo and Moonta-Wallaroo. The volume also contains the first comprehensive published descriptions of the geophysical characteristics of several important types of deposits. For example, 'high-grade zinc-oxide' deposits, such as Beltana, Aroona, and the recent Reliance discovery. Another important class of deposit, which has been neglected in geophysical publications, is sediment-hosted stratiform copper sulphide mineralisation. The volume contains a comprehensive description of the deposits in South Australia, covering regional to prospect-scale geophysical surveys. Other notable deposits described include the heavy-mineral sand accumulations at Mindarie in the western Murray Basin, the Uley graphite deposit on the Eyre Peninsula, the recently discovered Archaean gold mineralisation at Challenger in the Gawler Craton, sandstone-type uranium deposits in the Frome Embayment and the well known iron-ore deposits in the Middleback Ranges. All are currently being mined, or else exploitation is planned in the near future.