PINE CREEK PROJECT

The Pine Creek Geosyncline is a major gold and uranium province in the Northern Territory which also contains many minor Cu, Pb-Zn and Sn mineral occurrences. Many of these metalliferous deposits have probably formed by the late stage magmatic fluids associated with post-orogenic granitoids.

Several uranium deposits and prospects in the central and southern Pine Creek Orogeny are located outside the areas of the uranium fields and are classified as ‘vein type’. Most of these occurrences, with the exception of Twin and Dam, were discovered during the first phase of uranium exploration during the early 1950’s. Adelaide River, George Creek and Fleur de Lys were among some of the earliest uranium mining operations in the Northern Territory, but were not large enough to attract much interest when compared to the Rum Jungle Mineral Field and Alligator River deposits. As a consequence there is little geological information available. Ore was processed at Rum Jungle and a total of 19.7 t of U3O8 was produced from vein type deposits.