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Location: 80.4 km NE from Julia Creek, Queensland, Australia
Level 11, 251 Adelaide TerracePerthWestern Australia, Australia6000
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The Richmond-Julia Creek project mineralisation is located within marine sediments of the Early Cretaceous Toolebuc Formation, a stratigraphic unit that occurs throughout the Eromanga Basin in central-northern Queensland.The Eromanga Basin is a sub-basin of the Great Artesian Basin and consists of a number of thick sequences of non-marine and marine sedimentary units. The Toolebuc is part of the Rolling Downs Group of the Eromanga Basin that covers a wide but relatively shallow structural depression in eastern Australia, covering 1.5 million km2. The basin was developed as a major downward warpon a basement of Proterozoic to Palaeozoic metamorphic and igneous rocks during the Jurassic to Cretaceous Periods.The Toolebuc Formation is a flat lying early Cretaceous (Albian ~ 100My) sediment that consists predominantly of black carbonaceous and bituminous shale and minor siltstone, with limestone lenses and coquinites (mixed limestone and clays). It is composed of two distinct units representing two different facies: an upper coarse limestone-rich-clay-oil shale unit (coquina) and a lower fine-grained carbonate-clay-oil shale unit.The Toolebuc Formation outcrops only at the margins of the Eromanga and Carpentaria basins, except at Julia Creek where it is draped over an interpreted original basement high and has been structurally brought to the surface. Where the unit outcrops it forms low, rubbly, subtle topographic highs which have been the source of road building materials in many areas.The limestone within the Toolebuc Formation has an abundant fossil assemblage which has been extensively studied. Two main faunal assemblages have been recognised, corresponding to the upper coquina facies (shelly limestone and clay) and a lower fine-grained carbonate shale facies. The organic matter in the fresh shale is predominantly lamellar and referred to by Hutton et al (1980) as ‘lamosite’ (lamellar oil shale). The organic compounds are described as Alginite B in order to distinguish them from the more generally recognised Alginite A, in which clear evidence of algal morphology can be observed. Alginite B comprises elongate anastomosing films derived from benthonic algae that are attributable to the Cyanophyceae genera of blue-green algae (Ozimic, 1986).High magnification scanning electron microscopy reveals the oil shale contains abundant micro fossils, dominated by small planktonic foraminifera and coccoliths (algal plates) believed to be derived from Cyanophta / blue- green algae. Average grain size of the lower oil shale calcareous nanofossils and clays are less than 5-7 microns. The blue-green algae are interpreted to have formed extensive algal mats on the sea floor. The preservation of dead algal matter can be related to an oxidising-reducing boundary probably situated immediately below the base of the living algal mat layer and keeping pace with its upward growth. The clays and kerogen are derived from planktonic algae and blue- green benthonic algae with the calcite representing the inorganic component of the organisms.Dimensions• Lilyvale is largely a sub-horizontal deposit between 7730000N and 7739000N; and from 680500E to 696700E. It has a roughly WNW-ESE strike. The Indicated resource is roughly 6km x 6km in areal extent. Deposit thickness is defined by V2O5 cut-off; at a 0.30% cutoff Lilyvale averages about 10m in thickness.• Overburden thickness varies between 2m and 15m.
