A series of workings that produced Pb-Ag-Zn-Cu. Started 1923. Ore reserves were 7,116,740 tons (1944)(8.6% Pb, 8.5% Zn, 7.7% Ag).
There are two main groups of orebodies: sedimentary exhalative Pb-Zn deposits, with finely banded galena, sphalerite and pyrite, and the Cu deposits, with epigenetic chalcopyrite ores. The ore mineralisation is stratiform, occurring in the 1,600 million-year-old Lower Proterozoic Urquhart Shale sequence. At Mount Isa, the sequence is 1km thick and dips at 65°. The orebodies lie within the upper 650m and are bounded by the Mount Isa fault on the west and by volcanic greenstones to the east. Comprising galena and sphalerite with pyrite and pyrrhotite, the lead-zinc-silver orebodies are concordant with carbonaceous dolomitic sediments, interfingering with the silica-dolomitic mass hosting copper. Over 20 ore zones are mineable, each up to 1.4km long by 800m deep and from 4m to 48m wide.
Cobalt mineralisation was found in the 1100 Copper Oreboy (Croxford, 1974).
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References
- Grondijs, H. F.; Schouten, C. (1937): A study of the Mount Isa ores. Economic Geology and the Bulletin of the Society of Economic Geologists 32, 407-450.
- Rocks & Min.: 22: 326.
- Croxford, N. J. W. (1974): Cobalt mineralization at Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia, with references to Mount Cobalt. Mineralium Deposita 9, 105-115.
- Econ Geol (1981) 76: 648-658
- Econ Geol (1989) 84: 529-550
- Wilde, A. R.; Jones, P. A.; Gessner, K.; Ailleres, L.; Gregory, M. J.; Duncan, R. J. (2006): A geochemical process model for the Mount Isa copper orebodies. Economic Geology 101, 1547-1567.
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