The geological relationship between Kanmantoo Cu-Au deposit mineralisation, hydrothermal metasomatism and igneous intrusives

Abstract

The Kanmantoo Cu-Au deposit has been in episodic operation since 1846, one decade after the capital city of Adelaide was established some 40 kilometres to the NW. Regionally and within the host stratigraphy there exists archetypal evidence of the Cambrian Delamerian Orogeny through a complex structural, metamorphic and intrusive history. Consequently, numerous theories exist within the literature regarding a syngenetic or epigenetic style of mineralisation and the debated contribution, if any, of magmatic hydrothermal fluids. This study has documented numerous felsic intrusive vein sets within the Kanmantoo Cu-Au deposit which have been utilised to constrain the role of igneous activity on mineralisation within a wider Delamerian context. Monazite U–Pb ages of felsic veins show that intrusion first occurred at syn-peak metamorphic, syn-orogenic conditions (495.11 ± 2.79 Ma), continuing periodically until post-peak metamorphic, extensional conditions (483.43 ± 2.52 Ma). Intrusions are coeval with mineralisation and are temporally and geochemically analogous to magmatic activity in the adjacent Monarto and Murray Bridge provinces. Analysis of trace elements in monazites identifies the Kanmantoo Cu-Au deposit as a syn- to post-peak metamorphic hydrothermal anomaly which, combined with the presence of felsic veins, indicates that mineralisation resulted partly from fluids generated by a pluton at depth. These findings broadly confirm the prospectivity of Delamerian-affected terranes throughout large parts of South Eastern Australia where pervasive intrusive geology exists.