Tectonic and Metallogenic Framework of the Cambrian Stansbury Basin, South Australia

South Australia's Early to Middle Cambrian Stansbury Basin preserves a paleogeographic zonation from shallow shelf carbonates to extensional rift facies. Sedimentation occurred from about 540 Ma to at least 510 Ma, with a phase of thick rift sedimentation from 526 Ma. The dataset from Geoscience Australia describes the basin's tectonic evolution and potential for various mineral deposit types, including Mississippi Valley-type and volcanogenic massive sulphide mineralisation.

Use Cases

• Modeling paleogeographic zonation based on described facies transitions from shelf carbonates to rift and back-arc basins.
• Assessing mineral potential for Mississippi Valley-type deposits associated with basin dewatering along major structures.
• Identifying targets for stratabound copper mineralisation at described redbed-to-marine stratigraphic transitions.
• Exploring for syn-sedimentary lead-zinc-silver-gold deposits based on the association with flooding surfaces and manganiferous exhalites.
• Evaluating potential for volcanogenic massive sulphide mineralisation analogous to the Mt Read Volcanics beneath the Murray Basin.

Strengths

• Describes a specific geological time range from about 540 to at least 510 million years ago.
• Identifies distinct geological phases, such as a rift sedimentation phase beginning at 526 Ma.
• Mentions specific mineral prospects (Angas and Mt Torrens) and recent drilling results on the Padthaway Ridge.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data files are in PDF and HTML formats, which may require extraction for computational analysis.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Time Range

About 540 Ma to at least 510 Ma (Early to Middle Cambrian)

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-30 12:39:22.758669; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Stansbury Basin - Kanmantoo Trough, South Australia, including Spencer and Ardrossan Shelves, Murray Basin basement, and Fleurieu Peninsula.