Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	19° 35' 35'' South , 134° 21' 52'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-19.59307,134.36470
GeoHash:	G#: qux8991qh
Locality type:	Mine
Köppen climate type:	BWh : Hot deserts climate
Nearest Settlements:	Place Population Distance Tennant Creek 3,889 (2012) 19.2km

James Hall pegged the lease in February 1941, 20 acres, GML 46E. Across 1948 to 1950, he submitted several crushings at 50 to 100 tonnes of ore a time to the No. 3 battery at Tennant Creek. This period produced 520 ounces of gold.

While Gigantic is the name of the historic mine, it is also the name of the local anticline covering several historic gold mines and prospects in an east-west trend, and further several kilometres surrounding can be called the Gigantic area, at least in mining and geology terms.

Geotechnics Australia reported on the location in 1971, but generalises the area, so the below information my also relate to the nearby New Moon and Hopeful Star mines. It was drilled by United Uranium NL in 1959 finding trace chalcopyrite, and sparse pyrite in joints, trace Cu and Au, with also biotite lamprophre near surface. Also in 1959, Australian Development NL drilled uncovering gold at 8-10 dwt. In 1966, BMR drilled finding no gold. The lease was owned by Inter Copper NL in 1971.

The east-west trending Gigantic Anticline is asymmetrical, east plunging, drag folded, grading to a shallow dome to the north. Gold is found on the southern limb of the anticline, where shear zones intersect siltstone and mudstone horizons of the Warramunga Formation, underlying quartz-hematite bodies.

The location is about 20 kilometres east of Tennant Creek. A rough track called the Pigeon Holes Road leaves the repeater station, just east of Tennant Creek heading east. Gigantic is half-way between the Hopeful Star and Great Bear historic gold mines. A faint track leaves the main track for 2 kilometres in a south direction. There appears little at the site other than a small cleared area in mulga scrub.

Regions containing this locality

Australian Plate (Australia Plate)	Tectonic Plate
North Australian Element, Australia	Craton
Kalkarindji Igneous Province, Northern Territory, Australia	Geologic Province
Warramunga Province, Northern Territory, Australia	Geologic Province

Regional Geology

This geological map and associated information on rock units at or nearby to the coordinates given for this locality is based on relatively small scale geological maps provided by various national Geological Surveys. This does not necessarily represent the complete geology at this locality but it gives a background for the region in which it is found.

Click on geological units on the map for more information. Click here to view full-screen map on Macrostrat.org

Cenozoic 0 - 66 Ma ID: 720975

sand plain 38499 Age: Cenozoic (0 - 66 Ma) Description: Sand or gravel plains; may include some residual alluvium; quartz sand sheets commonly with ferruginous pisoliths or pebbles; local clay, calcrete, laterite, silcrete, silt, colluvium Comments: regolith; synthesis of multiple published descriptions Lithology: Regolith Reference: Raymond, O.L., Liu, S., Gallagher, R., Zhang, W., Highet, L.M. Surface Geology of Australia 1:1 million scale dataset 2012 edition. Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia). [5]

Paleoproterozoic 1600 - 2500 Ma ID: 3187547

Paleoproterozoic intrusive rocks Age: Proterozoic (1600 - 2500 Ma) Comments: Tennant Creek Block Lithology: Intrusive igneous rocks Reference: Chorlton, L.B. Generalized geology of the world: bedrock domains and major faults in GIS format: a small-scale world geology map with an extended geological attribute database. doi: 10.4095/223767. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 5529. [154]

Data and map coding provided by Macrostrat.org, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

References