Applied Mineral Exploration
Discussion and research relevant to mineral
exploration. Decrepitation data of gold deposits in the Southern Cross area, Western Australia
In 1994 an extensive suite of samples was collected from gold deposits near Southern Cross
Southern Cross region - location map
Samples were collected from the pink shaded mines.
Brief sample descriptions of these mine samples are here
In all cases same-numbered samples with alphabetic suffixes were collected from the same location within a few metres and show the local variability of the data.
This location map is from the Geological Society of Australia (WA
division) Excursion guidebook 8 by W.K. Witt, D.I. Groves &
S.E. Ho 1994. This document contains extensive geological
details of the region and mines visited.
Golden Pig mine
Barren quartz at the Golden Pig mine has no low-temperature
decrepitation
Gold mineralized quartz shows low intensity decrepitation at low temperature indicating a correlation between gold and CO2 rich fluids.
Copperhead pit, near Bullfinch
Samples from this pit were collected from the pit floor and it is
not know which samples are from gold mineralized zones. Some of the
samples have low-temperature decrepitation due to CO2
rich fluids but it is unknown if this feature correlates well with
the gold content. Sample 1554G (black) contains non-quartz mineral
contamination which causes the high decrepitation above 600 C.
A few samples (suffixes N, P and R) from the Copperhead pit floor do contain CO2 rich fluid inclusions and these were collected close together. There are mappable patterns of fluid inclusion composition across the area of the pit.
