Munda deposit, Widgiemooltha, Coolgardie Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Munda deposit	Deposit
Widgiemooltha	Town
Coolgardie Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

While both gold and nickel mines occur in the Widgiemooltha area, Munda is unusual as gold and nickel occur within the same deposit. Located 5 kilometres west of Widgiemooltha.

Discovered by Anaconda and CRA late 1960's. Munda was held by Western Mining Corporation till 2001. WMC estimated the deposit held 45 000 tonnes at 2.54% Ni or 1140 tonnes of metal. A 2007 report estimates 115 000 tonnes at 1.95% Ni or 5000 nickel tonnes, with gold reserves at 540 K tonnes at 2.7 g/t.

The lease was sold by Reliance Mining to Titan Resources. Titan undertook drilling at Munda in 2005 in a 50% joint venture with Consolidated Minerals Ltd. The best result showed 17.95 g/t Au.

Consolidated Minerals took over Titan after the Armstrong Mine debacle, in September 2006, and at some point after this a small open pit was excavated probably for gold. Sources indicate the upper levels were gold rich, while the lower levels are nickel rich. The main problem with the deposit is the Kambalda nickel concentrator cannot recover the gold.

The source focusses on nickel. Mineralisation is at the amphibolite Footwall contact. The ultramafic formation is 600 metres thick, of picrite flow units, altered to tremolite-chlorite rocks. Complex metamorphosed olivine rich rocks are found at the base, containing serpentinized metamorphic fosteric olivine, talc, tremolite, and actinolite. The deposit extends for 360 metres as disseminated ore, grading at 0.5-2.0% Ni. There is also thin layers of foliated massive to breccia sulphides of up to 16% Ni, adjacent to the Footwall amphibolite. Primary mineralisation is pyrrhotite, pentlandite, chalcopyrite, pyrite.

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References