Aroona Mine, Leigh Creek, Pastoral Unincorporated Area, South Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Aroona Mine	Mine (Abandoned)
Leigh Creek	Town
Pastoral Unincorporated Area	Unincorporated Area
South Australia	State
Australia	Country

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An abandoned Zinc mine (mining started in 1990) with 150'000 t @ 34.4%Zn and 1.6%Pb. The deposit is located 3.3 km SW of Leigh Creek South. Part of the ore is stored on the stockpile at the Puttapa mine, 11 km to the SE. Mineral assemblages are quite similar, with willemite being the main Zn host.

Pasminco Australia Ltd. periodically mine willemite zinc ore from the Ajax Limestone hosted deposits Beltana (Puttapa) and Aroona Mines. The ore is of high grade (40% Zn) and requires only crushing and screening prior to smelting at Port Pirie where it is used as a "sweetener" with other zinc ores at a rate of 10 000 - 15 000 t per annum. Aroona produced 23 179 t of zinc ore between 1990 and 1999. Mining operations ceased at Aroona in 2000 and the site was rehabilitated. Ore was removed and stockpiled at Beltana of which 27 846 t was sent to Port Pirie in 2001. Willemite mineralisation is localised in fault zones from metal-rich solutions, and subsequently concentrated by supergene enrichment.

This mine had previously been added to the Beltana Mine as a sub-locality due to the ore of both mines being combined at the site of the Beltana mine, but the actual deposits are quite separate.

There are two separate deposits: Aroona 1 & 2, which together contained around 150 000 t @ 34.4% Zn, 1.6% Pb of mineable reserve, mainly in Aroona 1 (1987). The Aroona 1 orebody extends for a distance of over 240 m along the Norwest fault zone and is continuous to a depth of 37 m. The host is a 60°NE dipping block of red dolomite (probably altered Wilkawillina Limestone) which is bounded by faults on its upper and lower margins. While the orebody is generally concordant with the dolomite block, its position relative to the bounding faults is variable. The hangingwall may be either Neoproterozoic quartzite or red Cambrian dolomite, while the footwall may be red dolomite or overturned middle Cambrian siltstone and sandstone. It has similar chemistry and mineralogy to the Main orebody at Beltana, but less lead. There are no concentrations of Pb-Mn-As wad similar to those at Beltana. (Description mostly from Portergeo, 2003).

Commodity List

This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded at this locality.

Mineral List

6 valid minerals.

Rock Types Recorded