Depositional Environments of Volcanic Peridotite-Associated Nickel Sulphide Deposits with Special Reference to the Kambalda Dome

Gresham, J. J.

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-70902-9_5

Cited by 21 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…If so, then we estimate that ~36 wt% of the sediment has been completely preserved, ~6 wt% has been partially preserved as restite, and ~58 wt% is missing and inferred to have been thermomechanically eroded (Lesher et al 1984). This calculation differs from that of Gresham (1986), who used the average present (preserved) thickness of the sediment (~1 m), not the original thickness of the sediment (~3 m).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Only if the sediments were less than 1.3 m thick (cf. Gresham 1986) would there be a deficiency in S, but even if the sediments were thinner, the shortfall in S could easily have been derived from sediments upstream from the deposits, where thermal erosion should have been even greater (see discussion by Lesher et al 1984, Lesher & Groves 1986, Lesher 1989, Lesher & Campbell 1993, Williams et al 1998.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Foster et al (1996) and Lambert et al (1998aLambert et al ( , b, 1999b also argued that there is insufficient S in the sediments, with reference to an argument by Gresham (1986). However, that interpretation was based on the interpretation that the ores and komatiites were erupted from feeder fissures beneath the ore zones, an interpretation that has subsequently been superseded by the interpretation that they formed in distal lava channels (Lesher et al 1984).…”

Section: Implications For the Genesis Of Ni-cu-(pge) Depositsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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MULTICOMPONENT ELEMENTAL AND ISOTOPIC MIXING IN Ni Cu (PGE) ORES AT KAMBALDA, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Lesher

Burnham

2001

The Canadian Mineralogist

130

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Most magmatic Ni-Cu-(PGE) deposits are considered to have formed from sulfide-undersaturated silicate magmas and to contain a significant component of crustal sulfur that was derived via wholesale melting, partial melting, or devolatilization of wall rocks. Under such circumstances, the system may comprise a silicate magma and a sulfide magma, with or without crystalline solids, undissolved wallrock-derived xenoliths, an unmixed silicate xenomelt, or an undissolved xenovolatile phase, each of which may contain distinct chalcophile and lithophile components. Because traditional two-component (silicate magma -sulfide magma) mass-balance models do not accurately model such systems, we have developed a series of multicomponent elemental and isotopic mass-balance equations to model batch equilibration in magmatic Ni-Cu-(PGE) systems. We have applied them to the type examples of komatiite-associated Ni-Cu-(PGE) deposits at Kambalda, Western Australia. The calculations indicate that the elemental and isotopic compositions of the various components in a multicomponent system will vary considerably as a function of the relative abundances of the components, and that different metals and isotopic systems may decouple from each other, yielding apparently conflicting information regarding the sources of the components. The results suggest that the S isotopic and Zn compositions of the ores are more sensitive indicators of contamination than the Os isotopes, and support a sedimentmelting model for Kambalda.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Implications For the Genesis Of Ni-cu-(pge) Depositsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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MULTICOMPONENT ELEMENTAL AND ISOTOPIC MIXING IN Ni Cu (PGE) ORES AT KAMBALDA, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Lesher

Burnham

2001

The Canadian Mineralogist

130

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“…In contrast, others used Re-Os (Foster et al 1996) and mass-balance calculations (Gresham 1986) to indicate that the evidence for contamination is ambiguous. Foster et al (1996) proposed that post-emplacement alteration could produce misleading geochemical characteristics.…”

Section: Contact Relationships and Texturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Field Characteristics and Erosional Processes Associated With Komatiitic Lavas: Implications for Flow Behavior

Fernand

Beresford

2001

The Canadian Mineralogist

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Although komatiitic lavas have long been depicted as turbulent flows, especially near the vent, field characteristics indicate that many komatiitic lavas did not flow turbulently, or only initially so. The bases of komatiites are commonly conformable with their substrate, including fine pelitic sediments, and the margins of komatiites are overwhelmingly coherent, or marked by local quench-fragmented hyaloclastite breccia. Autobreccias are notably missing. These characteristics are not consistent with turbulent flow, but clearly indicate conditions of laminar flow. If komatiitic flows were turbulent, they should commonly have scoured into substrate sediments through a variety of physical erosion processes, including foundering into underlying seafloor sediments, because of density inversion, and turbulence-induced scouring of sediments. These features are not commonly developed, also indicating that generally komatiites were emplaced under tranquil, laminar-flow conditions. Trough-like structures that commonly host nickel sulfide mineralization have commonly been interpreted to originate by thermal erosion of substrate by the komatiitic lava. The evidence supporting thermal erosion is not strong, and commonly ambiguous. Trough structures at Kambalda, Western Australia, are fault bounded, as noted by several previous investigators. However, there is a common, but not universal, antithetic relationship between trough presence and sediment absence. Removal of sediment from troughs could be explained by physical erosion, with an initial narrow, turbulent flow-head scouring a channel in the underlying sediments. As the lava flows spread laterally, their flow-front velocity decreased, and flow became laminar, so explaining the conformable contacts with substrate and the presence of coherent crusts represented by the random spinifex textural zone. Thermal erosion was rare, and could only have resulted beneath sustained lava tubes, within the flow interior, not from the flow head.Keywords: komatiites, laminar flow, field characteristics, physical erosion. SOMMAIREQuoique les coulées de lave komatiitique ont maintes fois été considérées turbulentes, surtout près de l'évent, les caractéristiques de terrain indiquent que dans la plupart des cas, le mode d'épanchement n'était pas turbulent, ou s'il l'était, seulement au tout début. La base d'une coulée est en général conforme avec le substrat, y inclus les cas où ce sont des sédiments pélitiques à grains fins qui sont en contact, et les marges sont conformes dans la grande majorité de cas, ou bien localement marquées par une brèche d'hyaloclastite due au refroidissement brutal. Le phénomène d'autobréchification est complètement absent. Ces caractéristiques ne concordent pas avec une hypothèse de turbulence, mais elles indiquent plutôt des conditions d'épanchement laminaire. Si l'épanchement avait été turbulent, la lave aurait creusé dans les sédiments sousjacents selon une variété de mécanismes physiques d'érosion, par exemple affaissement dans les sédiments des fond...

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“…Kambalda is a world class nickel and gold mining district with a premined reserve of approximately 35 million metric tons containing 3% nickel (Gresham, 1986;Stone and Masterman, 1998). It is located in the south-central part of the Norseman-Wiluna Greenstone belt of the Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia (Figure 3), and is considered a type section for Archean komatiite-associated nickel sulfide deposits.…”

Section: Kambalda Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrophone VSP surveys in hard rock

et al. 2012

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Seismic imaging in hard rock environments is gaining wider acceptance as an exploration technique and as a mine-planning tool. To date, 13 successful case studies have been acquired in Australia. The images generated from hard rock targets exhibit large levels of complexity and their interpretations remain an active area of study. To assist the imaging and better understand the source of the reflections observed, vertical seismic profiling (VSP) can be employed. This technique is not readily applied to hard rock environments because cost and operational issues often prove prohibitive. We propose the use of hydrophone arrays as a cost effective solution to VSP acquisition. We highlight the key challenges in using these receivers and propose solutions to overcome them. By careful acquisition methodologies and refined signal processing techniques, the tube waves that have up to now compromised the use of hydrophones for VSP acquisition can be effectively mitigated. We show that the data acquired with hydrophones compare favorably to that acquired with conventional 3C geophones. The data acquired with hydrophones come at a fraction of the cost and deployment time required for conventional acquisition procedures. Our results show that hydrophone vertical seismic acquisition is a viable, cost effective, and efficient solution that should be employed more routinely in hard rock environments to enhance the value of the surface data sets being acquired.

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Depositional Environments of Volcanic Peridotite-Associated Nickel Sulphide Deposits with Special Reference to the Kambalda Dome

Cited by 21 publications

References 34 publications

MULTICOMPONENT ELEMENTAL AND ISOTOPIC MIXING IN Ni Cu (PGE) ORES AT KAMBALDA, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

MULTICOMPONENT ELEMENTAL AND ISOTOPIC MIXING IN Ni Cu (PGE) ORES AT KAMBALDA, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Field Characteristics and Erosional Processes Associated With Komatiitic Lavas: Implications for Flow Behavior

Hydrophone VSP surveys in hard rock

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