Olympic Dam

Olympic Dam (South Australia)

Hydrothermal Fe-oxide rare earth element deposit in South Australia, Australia

Deposit type: Magmatic, Hydrothermal Fe-oxide

REE minerals: monazite, bastnasite, fluocerite, florencite

Ore minerals: chalcocite, bornite, chalcopyrite, uraninite, brannerite, hematite, fluorite, barite

Gangue minerals: quartz

Host rock types: olympic dam breccia complex- granite breccia

Status: REO not recovered; potential byproduct

Company: Western Mining Corp. - BP Group (1988)

Average grade: 0.3285% REO associated with U3O8 in a major Cu/Au/Ag/U mine.

0.5% REE on average 2000 Mt @ 0.24-0.45% La + Ce 0.3285% REO

References

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org

  2. https://books.google.cl/books?id=jPskAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA4-PA13&lpg=RA4-PA13&dq=Green+Cove+Springs+Mine+monazite&source=bl&ots=8xH_PV9MoG&sig=MkXPfqzQ6OM4zmU2OWc-eHL2-GQ&hl=ru&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj6-bG1mfbMAhUDE5AKHYGfCWsQ6AEIKDAD#v=onepage&q&f=false

  3. http://mrdata.usgs.gov/ree/show-ree.php?rec_id=273

@ Ph.D. Natalia Petrovskaya

June, 2016

nataliapetrovsky@gmail.com