Undiscovered orogenic gold endowment in Northern Victoria, Australia

The northern part of the Victorian gold province (Australia) is covered by Cainozoic sediments and remains poorly explored. This contiguous covered area of over 44 000 km2 is highly prospective for orogenic gold deposits. This paper discusses results of probabilistic quantitative assessments of undiscovered gold potential in the northern, covered parts of the Western Lachlan Orogen (the Stawell, Bendigo and Melbourne zones). For the Bendigo and Stawell zones, quantitative estimates were only made for undiscovered mesozonal orogenic gold–quartz vein deposits — the predominant type of gold mineralisation in that region. For the northern part of the Bendigo Zone under cover (10 000 km2), the mean estimate is approximately 1000 t, with a 90% probability of at least 290 t, of gold in undiscovered mesozonal orogenic gold deposits. For the northern, covered area of the Stawell Zone (30 000 km2), the mean estimate is 1200 t, with a 90% probability of at least 200 t, of undiscovered gold. The northern part of the Melbourne Zone (4400 km2) is considered prospective for epizonal orogenic gold deposits associated with quartz–pyrite–arsenopyrite veins and stockworks or with quartz–stibnite–gold veins. The mean estimate for that area is 90 t, with a 90% probability of at least 10 t, of gold in undiscovered epizonal orogenic gold deposits.