Mount Carlton Gold-Silver-Copper Project
Geology
Regional magnetic data indicates that the northern Bowen Basin occurs in a transfer zone between two major fault zones: the Almoola Fault and related structures along the western margin of the Connors Arch and the Millaroo Fault along the western contact of the Bowen Basin.
Along the western margin of the Connors Arch progressively younger rocks of the Lizzie Creek Volcanics are exposed from south to north and are in contact with rocks of the Connors Arch. Accordingly the contact with the Connors Arch is characterised by stratigraphic omission. This is interpreted to indicate that the significant extensional faulting has occurred along the contact. A major shallow, south plunging syncline lies at the northern end of the Bowen Basin.
NNW-SSE trending faults and dykes and cross-cutting E-W to ENE-WSE faults and dykes are the prominent structural features within the Lizzie Creek Volcanics. Some of the flow dome or crypto-dome complexes at BV7 are interpreted to have formed in dilational jogs along the NNW-SSE trending faults during the oblique faulting (Baker 2001). The gold mineralisation at Mt Carlton is interpreted to have formed during caldera resurgence at the time of the intrusion and extrusion of the Capsize-Mt Carlton rhyolite and Strathbogie Trachyte (Coughlin, 1992). Previous studies have been based mainly on stratigraphic studies and the structural setting of the area is not well understood.
Accordingly the northern part of the Lizzie Creek Volcanics, which is the main host to gold mineralisation in the area, is in major transfer zone or jog between two major regional structures. Within the jog the basal contact of the Lizzie Creek Volcanics has undergone uplift and significant extensional faulting during development of the Bowen Basin and uplift of the Connors Arch. The setting is interpreted to be analogous to the development of a Metamorphic Core Complex.