MINERAL ASSESSMENT REPORT

1 MMIINNEERRAALL AASSSSEESSSSMMEENNTTRREEPPOORRTTD ecember 1999 Published by the joint Commonwealth and Victorian Regional Forest Agreement (RFA)Steering Committee Commonwealth of Australia 1999 ISBN 0 642 56601 1 The views expressed in this REPORT are those of the authors and not necessarily those of theCommonwealth of Australia or Victoria. The Commonwealth and Victoria do not acceptresponsibility for any advice or information in relation to this are available from:Department of Natural Resources and Environment8 Nicholson StreetEAST MELBOURNE VIC 3002Ph: (03) 9637 8080 Copies will also be available through the Environmental Resources Information Network onits World Wide Web Server.

2 Contact: further information about this REPORT contact the Commonwealth Forests Taskforce, Ph:(02) 6271 work is copyright. It may be produced in whole or in part for study or training purposessubject to the inclusion of acknowledgment of the source and no commercial usage or for purposes other than those listed above requires written permission of theCommonwealth and Victorian RFA Steering should be addressed to:Commonwealth and Victorian RFA Steering CommitteeC/- Commonwealth Forests TaskforceDepartment of the Prime Minister and Cabinet3 5 National CircuitBARTON ACT 2600Ph: (02) 6271 5181 West Victoria MINERAL ASSESSMENT REPORT iiiAcknowledgmentsThe collection of information and REPORT preparation on the MINERAL resources and the mineralpotential of the West region were undertaken cooperatively between officers of theAustralian Geological Survey Organisation and the Geological Survey of Victoria.

3 Aneconomic ASSESSMENT of MINERAL resources was prepared by the Australian Bureau ofAgricultural and resource Geological Survey OrganisationYanis Miezitis, Subhash Jaireth, Aden McKay, Keith Porritt, Don Perkin, Lloyd David,Neal Evans, Ken Lawrie, Andrew Lucas, Tim Johns, Danuta Survey of Victoria, Department of Natural Resources and EnvironmentTom Dickson, Roger Buckley, Ian McHaffie, Alan Willcocks, Peter O Shea, Kemal InanAustralian Bureau of Agricultural and resource EconomicsChris AllenWest Victoria MINERAL ASSESSMENT REPORT vContentsAcknowledgments .. 1 PART 1 KNOWN AND POTENTIAL RESOURCES OFMETALLIFEROUS AND EXTRACTIVE 3 Geological setting.

4 5 Adelaide Fold Belt .. 5 Lachlan Fold Belt .. 8 Murray 10 Otway Basin .. 10 History of mining and known MINERAL and extractive resources .. 13 Metals .. 13 Non 21 Potential MINERAL and extractive resources .. 33 MINERAL potential ASSESSMENT methodology .. 33 MINERAL and extractive potential in the West region .. 34 Summary of potential for metalliferous and industrial minerals, andconstruction materials in the West 44 PART 2 CURRENT EXPLORATION, MINING ANDEXTRACTION ACTIVITIES AND POTENTIALECONOMIC 63 Current exploration, mining and extraction activities and potentialeconomic value .. 65 Exploration .. 67 Exploration prior to 1965 .. 67 Exploration from 1965 to the 67 Mining and quarrying.

5 71 Case study slate belt gold and the Nagambie Mine .. 71 Outlook for MINERAL production .. 73 Gold .. 73 Base 73 Brown coal .. 74 Titanium minerals .. 75vi West Victoria MINERAL ASSESSMENT reportLegislation and land and regulation relevant to exploration, mining andextractives ..77 Nature of exploration and mining ..78 References ..81 APPENDIXES ..91 Appendix AMethodology for ASSESSMENT of potential(undiscovered) MINERAL resources ..93 Appendix BMineral resource ASSESSMENT and MINERAL depositmodels ..97 Appendix CMineral resources metadata 1aGlenelg Zone summary of geological and mineralising events ..6 Table 1bStawell, Bendigo Ballarat and Melbourne Zones, Otway and MurrayBasins summary of geological and mineralising events during 2 Main MINERAL occurrences, old mines and 3 Recorded past gold production from goldfields.

6 15 Table 4 Resources in gold deposits ..17 Table 5 Recorded past production from major deep leads ..18 Table 6 Other MINERAL resources ..19 Table 7 Resources in MINERAL sands deposits ..21 Table 8 Brown coal resources ..22 Table 9 Active construction materials quarries ..25 Table 10 Dimension stone ..28 Table 11 Recorded production of other MINERAL resources ..29 Table 12 Precious and semi-precious stones 13 Summary of potential MINERAL resources as at June 1999 ..35 Table 14 MINERAL exploration expenditure on exploration licences, West region,1991 92 to 1997 98 (1997 98 dollars) ..69 Table 15 Expenditure on mining licences in the West region, 1991 92 to 1997 98(1997 98 dollars).

7 70 Table 16 Gross revenue and direct employment, Nagambie Gold Mine ..72 Table 17 Land use categories as a proportion of total land area, West region ..78 West Victoria MINERAL ASSESSMENT REPORT viiFiguresFigure 1 Relationship between levels of resource potential and levels of 33 Figure 2 Land tenure, quarries and exploration licenses .. attachedFigure 3 MINERAL potential tracts for heavy MINERAL 47 Figure 4 MINERAL potential tracts for slate-belt gold deposits .. 48 Figure 5 MINERAL potential tracts for disseminated gold deposits .. 49 Figure 6 MINERAL potential tracts for alluvial gold, including deep-lead gold .. 50 Figure 7 MINERAL potential tracts for epithermal deposits for gold and silver.

8 51 Figure 8 MINERAL potential tracts for porphyry copper-gold deposits .. 52 Figure 9 MINERAL potential tracts for volcanic associated massive sulphide basemetal deposits .. 53 Figure 10 MINERAL potential tracts for tin vein deposits (including greisen tindeposits) .. 54 Figure 11 MINERAL potential tracts for tungsten-molybdenum deposits .. 55 Figure 12 MINERAL potential tracts for coal .. 56 Figure 13 MINERAL potential tracts for dimension stone deposits .. 57 Figure 14 MINERAL potential tracts for limestone deposits .. 58 Figure 15 MINERAL potential tracts for silica sand deposits .. 59 Figure 16 MINERAL potential tracts for kaolin deposits .. 60 Figure 17 MINERAL potential tracts for construction 61 Figure 18 Exploration licences granted per year within the West Victoria RFAregion, 1965 1998.

9 69 Figure 19 Production from slate belt gold deposits in Victoria, 1857 1974 .. 71 Figure 20 Base metals and gold prices (1998 US dollars) .. 74 Figure 21 Energy consumption for electricity generation and production of browncoal in Victoria, 1980 81 to 1997 98 .. 75 MapsMap 1aSurface geologyMap 1bLegend for geologyMap 2 MINERAL occurrencesMap 3 Composite MINERAL potentialMap 4 Cumulative MINERAL potentialWest Victoria MINERAL ASSESSMENT REPORT 1 IntroductionThe aim of the regional ASSESSMENT of minerals potential is to draw together new andexisting information to aid the consideration of economic effects of forest use options to beconsidered in the development of the West Victoria Regional Forest Agreement (RFA).

10 Inparticular this ASSESSMENT contributes to the evaluation of: the nature of MINERAL resources in forested land; current and potential uses of forested land; economic value of MINERAL products; structure and regional significance of the mining industry; and resource , infrastructure and policy requirements for the establishment of National Forest Policy Statement recognises the need to consider access for mineralexploration and extraction activities in deciding on landuse for public native forests. Accessfor mining and exploration varies with land tenure. Due to the incomplete nature ofinformation on minerals resources and the fact that exploration is a dynamic information-gathering process, continued access to land is a significant issue for the mining industry andfor future MINERAL REPORT outlines: identified MINERAL deposits; the potential for a number of deposit types;indicators of the region s potential MINERAL value; and factors affecting this value.