Collision-related granitic magmatism in the Granites–Tanami Orogen, Western Australia

Abstract

The Palaeoproterozoic Granites–Tanami Orogen (GTO) is a significant auriferous province located in the poorly exposed southwestern part of the North Australian Craton (NAC). U-Pb data from Sensitive High Mass Resolution Ion Microprobe (SHRIMP) studies, Sm–Nd isotopic data, geochemistry and petrological studies all suggest that granitic rocks in the Western Australian portion of the GTO were emplaced around ca. 1795 Ma broadly synchronous with gold mineralization. These are variably fractionated, peraluminous, and derived from, or interacted with, ca. 2600 Ma upper crustal material. Deformation, metamorphism and magmatism around 1795 Ma in the GTO were synchronous with the Stafford Orogeny in the Arunta Orogen of central Australia. This deformation was the product of north- to northeast-directed compression within the GTO, and is associated with greenschist facies regional metamorphism. Amphibolite facies metamorphism is restricted to the immediate aureole of certain granitic rocks. This process is clearly a thermal overprint of the regional greenschist facies metamorphism, and indicates that the granitic rocks were emplaced during peak regional metamorphism or soon after. The granitic rocks are inferred to have formed in response to convergence and amalgamation of the GTO and the northern part of the Arunta Orogen along an accretionary margin delineated by the Willowra Lineament, which extends for thousands of kilometres in central and western Australia. Synchronous ca. 1795 Ma orogenic gold mineralization and syn-collisional granitic rocks have been identified across extensive regions throughout the NAC (e.g. the Pine Creek and Halls Creek orogens) suggesting that the Palaeoproterozoic assembly of Australia was marked by a widespread, significant metallogenic event at that time.