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B RILLIA NT- ON LIN E AUGUS T 2021
IS THE GAWLER CRATON THE NEXT COMMODITY RUSH, AGAIN? ✦ A Samso Insight on why investors should be interested in the Gawler Craton
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ctually, world-class deposits are found in Cadia (New South Wales) and the Olympic Dam. They are lesser known because they are not in the realms of the average investors’ playing space. Most people are not aware of the significance of Gawler Craton. Some parts of the brokering fraternity do not even pay attention to this area.
What is the Gawler Craton? The Gawler Craton is the oldest and largest geological province in South Australia, preserving a complex tectonic history spanning from c. 3200 Ma to 1450 Ma. The craton comprises a Meso- to Neoarchaean core enclosed by Palaeoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic rocks. The Mesoarchaean history of the Gawler Craton is dominated by felsic magmatism, the Neoarchaean to Palaeoproterozoic history by sedimentation and bimodal volcanism, and the Mesoproterozoic history by felsic volcanism. - Source: South Australian Department of Energy and Mining.
What’s in the Gawler Craton? According to the department, the Gawler Craton is prospective for the following commodities: Metals: Cu, Au Fe, Ag, Pb, Zn, Co, Ni, Cr, Mn Ti, V, PGE, Mo, W, Sn, REE Industrial minerals: graphite, kaolin, talc, magnesite, limestone, dolomite, barite, vein-silica, manganese oxide
stone (granite) and regolith clay (brickmaking & refractory) Energy minerals: U3O8, thorium What all the geological jargon means is that the Gawler Craton is old and has had a lot of structural deformations, reheating, deposition and redepositing of mineralisation. Gawler Craton is a blank canvas and where you discover something is entirely up to the participants who have the “Who Dares Win” strategy. We all know that this simply means the size of your pocket and that gut instinct. In summary, it is a damn good place to be looking for minerals as it is a large cooking pot with everything thrown into it.
Why the interest in the Gawler Craton? The Gawler Craton, in my opinion, is literally the last frontier. This is due to its remoteness and lack of exploration activities for the last twenty years. When you look at the size of the area, you can start to appreciate the remoteness and the potential cost of exploring in this area. What makes this a great project location is that the remoteness is coupled by the lack of interest by the capital markets to fund any exploration for the last twenty years. What this lack of interest means for an optimistic exploration geologist, is the thought of a blank canvas to discover new deposits.
Gem: jade, diamonds, chalcedony/ agate
What is noteworthy is that Gawler Craton is a large place and one of the most important aspects of mineral exploration is to get access to the land, so that you can do work.
Construction materials: vast resources of road making material (limestone, dolomite, quartzite, sandstone, gneiss), dimension
The key aspect of my Insight is the lack of intense exploration in the Gawler Craton, the lack of interest for a good part of two decades and
