Genesis of bauxite deposits in the Boolarra‐Mirboo area of Gippsland, victoria

Abstract

Abstract Bauxite deposits in Gippsland are small, low in grade, and buried under a thick cover of Tertiary sands. Occurring at various stratigraphic levels in the Thorpdale volcanic sequence, they are also texturally and compositionally primitive and hence now presumably fossilised. Although broadly comparable with deposits in Tasmania and New England, they show few obvious analogies with other Australian bauxites. Profile studies reveal a somewhat erratic vertical mineralogical zonation which can, at least in part, be accounted for by assuming a degree of post‐bauxitisation planation so that some profiles are now truncated. Some profiles show gibbsite increasing with depth and at least in the Boolarra profile this has significant genetic implications. Here, during submergence of the lateritic surface, rising carbonated connate waters precipitated scarbroite and this, with subsequent renewed leaching, decomposed initially to form nordstrandite, and finally gibbsite.