Queensland Geological Record 2007/01

Mines, mineralisation and mineral exploration in the Maryborough 1:250 000 map sheet area, South-East Queensland

by TJ Denaro, LC Cranfield, MJ Fitzell, PE Burrows & DA Morwood

This report summarises the mineralisation, regional geology, mining history and exploration activity in the Maryborough 1:250 000 Sheet area, in south-east Queensland, Australia.

Mining commenced within in the Sheet area as early as 1867, with the discovery of the Mount Perry copper lode and the Colo alluvial gold deposits. Historically, mines in the study area have produced at least 4258.86kg gold bullion, 14 069.37kg fine gold, 41 092.38kg silver, 12 185.6t copper, 6.2t lead, 1616.6t bismuth and bismuth concentrates, 490 607t clay and brick clay, 166 684.5t silica sand and foundry sand, 248t rock silica, 37 132.85t limestone, 9981.6t earthy lime and lime, 107.25t molybdenite concentrates, 740 795.55t magnetite, 4.06t manganese oxide and 150.4t graphite. Significant copper production has come from the Mount Perry area. Mount Biggenden was an important producer of magnetite for coal washing. Gold has been mined from a number of fields, but the only currently operating mine is Mount Rawdon, which is one of Queensland's largest gold producers.

The Sheet area contains known apatite, bismuth, clay, cobalt, copper, earthy lime, feldspar, gold-silver, graphite, ilmenite, iron, limestone, magnetite, manganese oxide, mica, molybdenum, rutile, scandium, silica sand and silver-lead-zinc mineralisation. Coal measures occur at Howard in the north-central part of the Sheet area but are not discussed in this report.

The Sheet area has been explored for gold, gold-copper and base metal deposits since the mid-1960s. Exploration has focused on the known deposits. The main greenfields discoveries have been large, low-grade porphyry Cu-Au-Mo deposits. Since 1978, exploration has mainly been for low-grade gold mineralisation. A number of significant deposits, some of which have been mined, have been discovered and evaluated. These include the Mount Rawdon, Barambah and Seven Sisters gold deposits, the Coalstoun Lakes, Booubyjan and Chinaman Creek porphyry copper deposits, the Ban Ban Zinc skarn deposit, and the Wateranga layered gabbro prospect.

Known resources and reserves total 51 007.6kg of gold, 273 274.6kg of silver, 994 497.6t of copper, 36 348t of zinc, 50.8t of molybdenite, 34 544t of iron, 1.65Mt of rutile, 16.5Mt of feldspar, 13.31Mt of ilmenite, 17 130t of scandium, 31.12Mt of mica and 0.67Mt of apatite. The Sheet area also contains significant undefined resources of clay, limestone and silica sand.

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