Lithofacies and geochemistry of the host sequence to the Currawong massive sulphide deposit, Benambra, Victoria

TL;DRAbstract

The Currawong massive sulphide deposit is one of two known deposits at Benambra, eastern Victoria. The deposit occurs near the base of the Gibsons Folly Formation which is a deep water, basin centre facies association of the Late Silurian Cowombat Rift (Allen, 1992). Coherent volcanic units of the Gibsons Folly Formation comprise andesite and plagioclase-phyric rhyodacite. These are predominantly shallow sills with margins of sediment-matrix hyaloclastite. The rhyodacite also forms cryptodome-like intrusions which have penecontemporaneously deformed the sequence. These and the sills were emplaced into a relatively unlithified sequence of mudstone (interbedded with thin, fine sandstone turbidites) and andesitic volcaniclastic units prior to the mineralising event. Units of strongly flow-banded and/or brecciated rhyodacite in the footwall sequence may be lavas but textures are equivocal. Quartz-plagioclase-phyric rhyolite (the Currawong Porphyry) is a sill which intruded relatively lithi

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