Paul H G M Dirks

James Cook University | JCU · College of science and engineering

The Watershed scheelite deposit is located in an extinct fore-arc basin in the Mossman Orogen of North Queensland. This fore-arc region comprises multiply deformed, Ordovician–Silurian metasedimentary rocks of the Hodgkinson Formation, and it was intruded by Carboniferous–Permian granites of the Kennedy Igneous Association. At Watershed, the Hodgki...

Tick Hill Gold Deposit is a unique gold mineralisation style in the Mary Kathleen Fold Belt in the Mount Isa Inlier. The gold at Tick Hill is generally pure without silver and was formed during two discrete metamorphic-deformation events (D1 and D3). Early gold was observed as inclusions or coarse grains hosted within D1 peak metamorphic diopside,...

In this research we developed cassiterite trace element discrimination plots that aid in differentiating the source of cassiterite. These plots can be used to explore for lithium pegmatite, polymetallic vein and tin deposits.

The Herberton Mineral Field hosts multiple small-scale, polymetallic Sn-Cu and Sn-Zn deposits. The Baal Gammon and Isabel polymetallic deposits in the Herberton Mineral Field contain early Sn that is overprinted by sulfides. At Baal Gammon, the sulfide overprinting is Cu-In-rich, whereas Isabel is a Zn-Pb-In-rich system. These deposits are hosted i...

Recent excavations in the Rising Star Cave System of South Africa have revealed burials of the extinct hominin species Homo naledi. A combination of geological and anatomical evidence shows that hominins dug holes that disrupted the subsurface stratigraphy and interred the remains of H. naledi individuals, resulting in at least two discrete feature...

Recent excavations in the Rising Star Cave System of South Africa have revealed burials of the extinct hominin species Homo naledi. A combination of geological and anatomical evidence shows that hominins dug holes that disrupted the subsurface stratigraphy and interred the remains of H. naledi individuals, resulting in at least two discrete feature...

Recent excavations in the Rising Star Cave System of South Africa have revealed burials of the extinct hominin species Homo naledi. A combination of geological and anatomical evidence shows that hominins dug holes that disrupted the subsurface stratigraphy and interred the remains of H. naledi individuals, resulting in at least two discrete feature...

The Herberton Mineral Field in NortheastAustralia hosts world class magmatic-hydrothermal Sn-W polymetallic deposits that are enriched in In. The Baal Gammon and Isabel deposits from the Herberton Mineral Field contains early tin, as cassiterite, overprinted by sulfide mineralization as chalcopyrite, sphalerite, galena, pyrrhotite, and stannite. We...

Indium is a critical metal with increasing demand in the manufacture of solar panels, LCDs, and touchscreens. Indium-rich tin deposits of the Herberton Mineral Field, such as those occurring at Baal Gammon and Isabel, are related to the fractionated granites of northeast Queensland that formed during the Carboniferous-Permian. Two phases of mineral...

Base metal mineralization at the Baal Gammon and Isabel deposits of the Herberton Mineral Field (HMF) is hosted in metamorphosed greywacke beds in the Hodgkinson Formation, which were intruded by granite, porphyry dykes and overlain by volcanic rocks of the Kennedy Igneous Association during the Carboniferous and Permian. The tin mineralization at...

We describe the first occurrence of diamond-facies ultrahigh pressure metamorphism along the Gondwana-Pacific margin of the Terra Australis Orogen. Metamorphic garnet grains from Ordovician metasediments along the Clarke River Fault in northeastern Queensland contain inclusions of diamond and quartz after coesite, as well as exsolution lamellae of...

Northeast Queensland contains multiple slices of mafic–ultramafic units, strung out along regional faults that mark major tectonic boundaries. One such complex is the Cowley Ophiolite Complex, which is situated along the Russell-Mulgrave Fault. The Cowley Ophiolite Complex is a differentiated mafic–ultramafic complex composed of gabbro, chlorite sc...

Discoveries of older (pre-Neogene) high-sulfidation epithermal deposits of economic significance are rare due to the high erosion rates that prevail in most volcanic arcs. A notable exception is the unusually well-preserved, early Permian Mt. Carlton Au-Ag-Cu deposit in the northern Bowen Basin, northeast Australia. Mt. Carlton is hosted in rhyodac...

Some of the evidence for the existence of life in the Archean Eon (4.0-2.5 Ga) comes from ‘microfossils’ that are believed to be the mineralized remnants of simple prokaryotic lifeforms. They are spheroidal shaped and a few microns to tens of microns across and most likely represent early prokaryotic organisms. Here we describe spheroidal carbon st...

In this contribution we propose that Mount Isa Inlier was affected by a new orogeny, the Wonga Orogeny, which occured between 1750 and 1710 Ma. Evidence for this event is principally given by structural field data and geochronology from this study and that documented in Spence et al. (2021). In this study, field relationships and geochronology with...

Conclusive evidence to define or date the incision of the palaeodrainage networks traversing the Yilgarn Craton is lacking, although several hypotheses exist and include; development within Archean bed rock surface depressions related to underlying rock type, emphasised by bed rock river development prior to break up of Gondwana; incision associate...

Conclusive evidence to define or date the incision of the palaeodrainage networks traversing the Yilgarn Craton is lacking, although several hypotheses exist and include; development within Archean bed rock surface depressions related to underlying rock type, emphasised by bed rock river development prior to break up of Gondwana; incision associate...

At the Tick Hill gold deposit, δ¹⁸Oquartz data for the mineralised lithologies and surrounding rocks are similar and fall within a narrow range of 10.5–13.7‰ V-SMOW. The highly mineralised quartzo-feldspathic mylonite has quartz δ¹⁸O (δ¹⁸Oquartz) values of 11.3–13.6‰, which are similar to values for the surrounding rocks both locally and regionally...

The Tick Hill Gold deposit in the southern Mary Kathleen Domain of the Mount Isa Inlier is hosted in a strongly deformed, Paleoproterozoic volcano-sedimentary sequence intruded by pre- and syn-tectonic granites. Igneous rocks and quartzite from the Tick Hill region were dated to constrain the age of the lithologies, deformation events, and gold min...

The use of structure-from-motion, multi-view stereo (SfM-MVS) in the mining industry is well-established for capturing digital data on surface. However, the application of SfM-MVS in active underground mining has received less attention as there are unique challenges that need to be overcome, especially if a procedure is to be applied daily in acti...

The high grade (∼22.5 g/t), gold-only Tick Hill deposit presents a unique mineralization style in the Mt Isa Inlier. The deposit was mined in the early 1990s, and is hosted in biotite schist, calc-silicate gneiss, quartzite and quartz-feldspar mylonite. These rocks were affected by D1 shearing and D2 upright folding at high-grade metamorphic condit...

The Geita mine is operated by AngloGold Ashanti and currently comprises four gold deposits mined as open pits and underground operations in the Geita greenstone belt, Tanzania. The mine produces ~0.5 Moz of gold a year and has produced ~8.3 Moz since 2000, with current resources estimated at ~6.5 Moz, using a lower cut-off of 0.5 g/t. The geologic...

Rising Star Cave in the Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, contains one of the richest hominin-bearing deposits in the world, and is the type locality for the Homo naledi fossils. This paper provides a stratigraphic and geochronological framework, within which published and future fossil finds from Rising Star Cave can be placed. Detailed mapping o...

The Early Permian Lizzie Creek Volcanic Group of the northern Bowen Basin, NE Queensland, Australia, has compositions that range from basalt through andesite to rhyolite with geochemical signatures (e.g., enrichment in Cs, Rb, Ba, U, Th, and Pb, depletion in Nb and Ta) that are typical of arc lavas. In the Mount Carlton district the Lizzie Creek Vo...

The Watershed tungsten deposit (49.2 Mt avg 0.14% WO3) lies within the Mossman orogen, which comprises deformed Silurian-Ordovician metasedimentary rocks of the Hodgkinson Formation intruded by Carbonif-erous-Permian granites of the Kennedy Igneous Association. The Hodgkinson Formation in the Watershed area comprises skarn-altered conglomerate, psa...

In this contribution, we present field-based evidence that in the Mary Kathleen Domain from the Eastern Fold Belt of the Mount Isa Inlier the 1790-1750 Ma metasediments of the Leichhardt Superbasin were sheared and folded between 1750-1710 Ma. The Mary Kathleen Domain consists of a series of anastomosing high and low strain domains intruded syn- to...

Earthquakes are relatively rare in Queensland. Nevertheless, since European settlement, most parts of the state’s east coast have felt the impacts of several moderate to high-magnitude events. Knowledge of seismic activity in Queensland is limited owing to sparse historical seismograph coverage, and the relatively short period (ca 1825 onwards) for...

The structural geology and tectonic setting of hydrothermal gold deposits are paramount for understanding their genesis and for their exploration. Strong structural control on mineralization is one of the defining features of these deposits and arises because the permeabilities of crustal rocks are too low to allow the formation of hydrothermal dep...

This study focuses on two early Pleistocene Australopithecus sediba hominin specimens and associated fauna from Malapa, South Africa. These specimens have been interpreted as having fallen through a shaft opening into a cave, where they died and likely mummified, before being washed into a lower chamber. In order to better understand the taphonomy...

The Mt. Carlton Au-Ag-Cu deposit, northern Bowen basin, northeastern Australia, is an uncommon example of a sublacustrine hydrothermal system containing economic high-sulfidation epithermal mineralization. The deposit formed in the early Permian and comprises vein- and hydrothermal breccia-hosted Au-Cu mineralization within a massive rhyodacite por...

The cover image is based on the Original Article* Effects of long soil surface residence times on apparent cosmogenic nuclide denudation rates and burial ages in the Cradle of Humankind, South Africa by Tebogo Vincent Makhubela** et al., https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.4723.***

Poster from GESSS WA

Gold mineralization in the Geita Hill deposit is associated with pyrite formed along microfracture networks and sulfidation fronts together with K-feldspar and biotite. The sulfidation fronts are best developed in magnetite-bearing ironstone. The gold is present mainly as electrum and gold tellurides along grain boundaries, and as inclusions in pyr...

Unconsolidated mud clast breccia facies in the hominin‐bearing (Homo naledi) Rising Star Cave, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, are interpreted to have formed through a process termed sedimentary autobrecciation in this study. This process, by which most of the angular mud clast breccia deposits are thought to have formed autochthonously to para‐...

In situ cosmogenic nuclides are an important tool for quantifying landscape evolution and dating fossil‐bearing deposits in the Cradle of Humankind (CoH), South Africa. This technique mainly employs cosmogenic 10‐Beryllium (10Be) in river sediments to estimate denudation rates and the ratio of 26‐Aluminium (26Al) to 10Be (26Al/10Be), to constrain a...

Economic Geology Research Centre (EGRU-James Cook Uni) conference on Sn-W and critical metals with a focus on the tin district of NE queensland

Economic Geology Research Centre 9eGRU-JCU) conference on Sn-W and critical metals with a focus on the tin district of NE Queensland

Mount Carlton is a Paleozoic high-sulfidation epithermal deposit located in the northern segment of the Bowen Basin, northeast Queensland, Australia. The deposit is hosted in Early Permian volcanic and sedimentary rocks, and an open-pit mining operation includes the Au-rich V2 pit in the northeast and the Ag-rich A39 pit in the southwest. Mineraliz...

Three major gold deposits, Matandani, Kukuluma, and Area 3, host several million ouncez (Moz) of gold, along a ~5 km long, WNW trend in the E part of the Geita Greenstone Belt, NW Tanzania. The deposits are hosted in Archaean volcanoclastic sediment and intrusive diorite. The geological evolution of the deposits involved three separate stages: (1)...

Three major gold deposits, Matandani, Kukuluma, and Area 3, host several million ouncez (Moz) of gold, along a ~5 km long, WNW trend in the E part of the Geita Greenstone Belt, NW Tanzania. The deposits are hosted in Archaean volcanoclastic sediment and intrusive diorite. The geological evolution of the deposits involved three separate stages: (1)...

The Kukuluma Intrusive Complex (KIC) is a late Archean igneous complex, dominated by monzonite and diorite with subordinated granodiorite. The monzonite and the diorite suites have low silica content (SiO2 ≤ 62 wt%), moderate Mg# (Mg#average = 49), high Sr/Y (Sr/Yaverage = 79) and high La/Yb (La/Ybaverage = 56) ratios, and strongly fractionated (La...

The detrital zircon population in quartzitic conglomerates from the northern Tanzania Craton yield ages between 2640 Ma and 2790 Ma which includes most of the igneous history from this part of the craton. The igneous evolution is characterised by mafic volcanism with an oceanic plateau-like geochemical signature at ~2800 Ma followed by diorite and...

Germanium, gallium and indium are in high demand due to their growing usage in high-tech and green-tech applications. However, the mineralogy and the mechanisms of concentration of these critical elements in different types of hydrothermal ore deposits remain poorly constrained. We investigated the mineralogical distribution of Ge, Ga and In at the...

The Geita Greenstone Belt is a late Archean greenstone belt located in the Tanzania Craton, trending approximately E-W and can be subdivided into three NW-SE trending terrains: the Kukuluma Terrain to the east, the Central Terrain in the middle and the Nyamullilima Terrain in the west. The Kukuluma Terrain, forms a NW-SE trending zone of complexly...

The world-class Geita Hill deposit is one of the largest gold deposits located within the Geita Greenstone Belt in NW Tanzania. The deposit is hosted within a complexly deformed sedimentary package dominated by ironstone and intruded by diorite dykes. The gold mineralisation is spatially associated with the Geita Hill Shear Zone which, is a NE-tren...

The Malapa site has yielded unusually abundant and well preserved fossils of Australopithecus sediba. While some elements were found in situ during excavation, others were recovered ex situ from blocks of clastic, calcified sediments collected around the site. We have refitted the ex situ elements from Facies D, the sedimentary unit represented by...

Geita Hill is a world-class gold deposit located in northwestern Tanzania and hosted within an ironstone-dominated sedimentary package, intruded by diorite dykes and sills. The host rocks were metamorphosed to greenschist facies and show a complex deformation history comprising early ductile, and late brittle-ductile events. The regional metamorphi...

Geita Greenstone Belt hosts 15 major gold deposits and many smaller gold occurrences. The gold deposits are clustered along long lived intrusive centres suggesting a genetic link between igneous activity and the gold forming processes. This is well illustrated around the Kukuluma, Nyankanga and Nyamulilima intrusive complexes where the gold deposit...

The Geita greenstone, Tanzania formed between 2820 Ma and 2620 Ma and hosts 15 deposits with a total endowment of >20Moz of gold across ~530 km 2. The tectonic history can be subdivided into 4 Stages. Stage 1 (2820-2700 Ma) includes the formation of the volcano-sedimentary sequence including layer-parallel exhalative sulphide deposits that may be r...

Mt Carlton is one of the world's few economic pre-Neogene high-sulfidation epithermal (HS) deposits. It occurs within an Au-Cu-endowed metallogenic province in the northern Bowen Basin (NE Queensland, Australia), with an identified resource of 8.62 Mt @ 3.19 g/t Au, 26 g/t Ag and 0.78 % Cu. Mt Carlton is hosted in volcanic and sedimentary rocks (28...

The early Permian (275-297 Ma) Lizzie Creek Volcanics (LCV), NE Queensland, floor the northern Bowen Basin which developed due to back-arc extension behind the Carboniferous Connors Arch. The basaltic to rhyolitic LCV have geochemical compositions typical for arc lavas (e.g. LILE enrichment, Nb + Ta depletion) and host a variety of porphyry and epi...

The northern Bowen Basin's basement is the Urannah Batholith that also crops out along the eastern side of the Bowen Basin for ~300 km long and up to 50 km wide. It is composed of coarse-grained granitoids, dated at 297-294 Ma. The basin is filled with the Lizzie Creek Volcanic Group (LCV) in the north, the central part of which is overlain by sedi...

Postcranial measurements. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24232.047

Canonical variates analysis of carpal morphology. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24232.048

Traits of the LES1 cranium in comparison to H. naledi and other hominin species. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24232.045

Cranial and mandibular measurements. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.24232.046