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Location: 75 km NW from Newman, Western Australia, Australia
152-158 St Georges TerracePerthWestern Australia, Australia6000
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The Hope Downs mine is located in the Hamersley Group which forms the middle layer of Mount Bruce Group in the Marra Mamba Iron Formation.The Pilbara region is situated within volcanic and sedimentary rock sequence of the Mount Bruce Supergroup. The Mount Bruce Supergroup commences with the lowermost Fortescue Group (clastic sediments and mafic volcanism, followed by extensive sandstones and conglomerates and thick mafic sills, unconformably overlain by volcanic and sedimentary rocks, more mafic sills and a thick, uppermost, organic and sulphide rich fine clastic sedimentary rock, associated mafic volcanic rocks and sills increasing southwards). The Fortescue Group is conformably overlain by the 2,500 m thick Hamersley Group, the main host to iron ore deposits, characterised by around 1,000 m of laterally extensive BIF, representing three major episodes.Type of mineralisation Mineralisation at Hope Downs 1 occurs as goethite/ haematite within the banded iron formations of the Marra Mamba and haematite/goethite within the banded iron formation of the Brockman Formation. Some detrital mineralisation also occurs.Mineralisation at Hope Downs 4 occurs as haematite/ goethite mineralisation hosted within the banded iron formations of the Brockman Formation.Marra Mamba Iron FormationThe unmineralised Marra Mamba Iron Formation is approximately 230 m thick, with mineralised sections of the same strata comprising approximately 50 to 60% of this thickness. This thinning effect also applies to orebodies formed in the Brockman Iron Formation and can be explained by the changes to the BIF during the ore forming process.The Marra Mamba Iron Formation overlies the Jeerinah Formation. It is sub-divided into three members. The lowermost member is the Nammuldi Member that consists of cherty BIF interbedded with thin shales. The intermediate MacLeod Member comprises BIF, chert and carbonate, along with interbedded shales. The uppermost Mt Newman Member consists of BIF with interbedded carbonate and shale. This unit is commonly the most iron enriched. Chert bands, especially within the Mt Newman Member, are thick and commonly podded.The shale macrobands in the three members have characteristic natural gamma log ’signatures’, due to their differing thicknesses and higher content of radioactive elements than the interbedded chert and iron oxide macrobands. The Mt Newman Member is the host rock for all the major Marra Mamba deposits in the Province, including Marandoo, Nammuldi, Silvergrass, West Angelas and the Hope Downs 1 deposits. Minor lower grade mineralisation occurs in the Nammuldi and MacLeod Members.Brockman Iron FormationThe Brockman Iron Formation has an unmineralised thickness of approximately 620 m. It is divided from the base upward into four members: Dales Gorge, Whaleback Shale, Joffre and Yandicoogina Shale. The high grade iron deposits at Tom Price, Western Turner Syncline, Paraburdoo, Channar, Eastern Range, Brockman 2, Brockman 4, Hope Downs 4 and Gudai-Darri are hosted predominantly by the Dales Gorge and Joffre Members, with only very minor mineralisation in the Whaleback and Yandicoogina Shales. The Dales Gorge Member has a thickness of approximately 140 m and consists of an alternating sequence of 17 BIF and 16 shale macrobands. BIF macrobands are comprised of mesobands of chert and iron-rich material in a chert matrix (Trendall, 1983) Mesobands commonly consist of millimetre alternations of chert, shale and iron-rich bands, termed microbands.
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