- journal_title：Geochemistry ; Exploration ; Environment ; Analysis
- Contributor：M. J. Lintern
- Publisher：Geological Society of London
- Date：2001-
- Format：text/html
- Language：en
- Identifier：10.1144/geochem.1.3.237
- journal_abbrev：Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis
- issn：1467-7873
- volume：1
- issue：3
- firstpage：237
- section：Regular Article
This paper describes and reviews the use of calcrete (caliche) for Au exploration in the southern Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia. There are very strong correlations between Au and the alkaline earth metals, particularly in residual soils. However, where transported overburden exceeds about 10 m, the use of calcrete to indicate underlying Au mineralization is severely limited. Even where transported overburden is less than 10 m, other factors, such as thick clay, may restrict geochemical signals from reaching the calcrete. In some cases, gold in calcrete occurring over mineralization may have been sourced from upslope.
Several lessons are to be learnt from calcrete sampling in the Yilgarn WA. Some of the more important being: