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Sally Malay Mine, Mabel Downs Station, Halls Creek Shire, Western Australia, Australiai
| Regional Level Types | |
|---|---|
| Sally Malay Mine | Mine |
| Mabel Downs Station | Station (farming) |
| Halls Creek Shire | Shire |
| Western Australia | State |
| Australia | Country |
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Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):
17° 20' 56'' South , 128° 1' 17'' East
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):
Type:
Köppen climate type:
Other/historical names associated with this locality:
Sally Malay Ni Mine; Sally Malay Nickel Project; Savannah Mine; Savannah open pit
Located 3.7 km north of Dave Hill.
120 kilometres north of Halls Creek. The mine can be seen to the west from the Great Northern Highway. The prospect was purchased from Normandy Mining in 2000, by private company Mitchell River Group. After exploration of the site, they formed a publicly listed company called Sally Malay Mining, which developed an open pit and underground decline.
The mine opened for production in 2004.
The mine is a nickel deposit hosted by an extensive suite of mafic and ultamafic intrusives within the late Proterozoic Halls Creek Mobile Zone. The intrusives are rythmically layered olivine gabbro, trocolite, norite, with massive nickel sulphides in the basal zones. This ore is dominated by pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and pentlandite as two steeply dipping lenses to the north, 3-40 metres thick at the bottom of the norite zone.
The footwall lens is at the base of the norite in contact with the footwall gneiss, however the hanging wall is up to 15 metres higher, although they merge to the west. There is also significant stringer and disseminated sulphide mineralisation between the lenses and into the hanging wall. The orebody strikes east-west, and showed originally as a well defined gossan 270 metres long on the surface. It terminates to the west by a fault and pinches out to the east. There is also a major fault 500 metres below the surface which dislocates the upper and lower orebodies by 150 metres.
Mine operations were suspended in April 2020 amidst the ongoing impact of the global pandemic and the falling nickel prices. The mine was successfully re-started in 2021 with the first shipment of concentrate leaving the port of Wyndham in December 2021. However, after nickel prices again declined, the operator, Panoramic Resources, went into voluntary administration in December 2023 and the mine was placed in care and maintenance in January 2024.
A nearby satellite open pit called Copernicus is on care and maintenance.
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Standard Detailed Gallery Strunz Chemical ElementsCommodity List
This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded from this region.Mineral List
Mineral list contains entries from the region specified including sub-localities10 valid minerals.
Rock Types Recorded
Note: data is currently VERY limited. Please bear with us while we work towards adding this information!
Rock list contains entries from the region specified including sub-localities
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Alphabetical List Tree DiagramDetailed Mineral List:
| ⓘ Almandine Formula: Fe2+3Al2(SiO4)3 |
| ⓘ Andalusite Formula: Al2(SiO4)O |
| ⓘ 'Biotite' Formula: K(Fe2+/Mg)2(Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe]2Si2O10)(OH/F)2 |
| ⓘ Chalcopyrite Formula: CuFeS2 |
| ⓘ Cordierite Formula: (Mg,Fe)2Al3(AlSi5O18) |
| ⓘ 'Fayalite-Forsterite Series' |
| ⓘ 'Feldspar Group' |
| ⓘ 'Feldspar Group var. Perthite' |
| ⓘ Magnetite Formula: Fe2+Fe3+2O4 |
| ⓘ Microcline Formula: K(AlSi3O8) |
| ⓘ Pentlandite Formula: (NixFey)Σ9S8 |
| ⓘ 'Plagioclase' Formula: (Na,Ca)[(Si,Al)AlSi2]O8 |
| ⓘ Pyrrhotite Formula: Fe1-xS |
| ⓘ Quartz Formula: SiO2 |
| ⓘ Sillimanite Formula: Al2(SiO4)O |
Gallery:
List of minerals arranged by Strunz 10th Edition classification
| Group 2 - Sulphides and Sulfosalts | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ⓘ | Pentlandite | 2.BB.15 | (NixFey)Σ9S8 |
| ⓘ | Chalcopyrite | 2.CB.10a | CuFeS2 |
| ⓘ | Pyrrhotite | 2.CC.10 | Fe1-xS |
| Group 4 - Oxides and Hydroxides | |||
| ⓘ | Magnetite | 4.BB.05 | Fe2+Fe3+2O4 |
| ⓘ | Quartz | 4.DA.05 | SiO2 |
| Group 9 - Silicates | |||
| ⓘ | Almandine | 9.AD.25 | Fe2+3Al2(SiO4)3 |
| ⓘ | Sillimanite | 9.AF.05 | Al2(SiO4)O |
| ⓘ | Andalusite | 9.AF.10 | Al2(SiO4)O |
| ⓘ | Cordierite | 9.CJ.10 | (Mg,Fe)2Al3(AlSi5O18) |
| ⓘ | Microcline | 9.FA.30 | K(AlSi3O8) |
| Unclassified | |||
| ⓘ | 'Biotite' | - | K(Fe2+/Mg)2(Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe]2Si2O10)(OH/F)2 |
| ⓘ | 'Feldspar Group' | - | |
| ⓘ | 'var. Perthite' | - | |
| ⓘ | 'Fayalite-Forsterite Series' | - | |
| ⓘ | 'Plagioclase' | - | (Na,Ca)[(Si,Al)AlSi2]O8 |
List of minerals for each chemical element
| H | Hydrogen | |
|---|---|---|
| H | ⓘ Biotite | K(Fe2+/Mg)2(Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe]2Si2O10)(OH/F)2 |
| O | Oxygen | |
| O | ⓘ Andalusite | Al2(SiO4)O |
| O | ⓘ Almandine | Fe32+Al2(SiO4)3 |
| O | ⓘ Biotite | K(Fe2+/Mg)2(Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe]2Si2O10)(OH/F)2 |
| O | ⓘ Cordierite | (Mg,Fe)2Al3(AlSi5O18) |
| O | ⓘ Magnetite | Fe2+Fe23+O4 |
| O | ⓘ Microcline | K(AlSi3O8) |
| O | ⓘ Quartz | SiO2 |
| O | ⓘ Sillimanite | Al2(SiO4)O |
| O | ⓘ Fayalite-Forsterite Series | |
| O | ⓘ Plagioclase | (Na,Ca)[(Si,Al)AlSi2]O8 |
| F | Fluorine | |
| F | ⓘ Biotite | K(Fe2+/Mg)2(Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe]2Si2O10)(OH/F)2 |
| Na | Sodium | |
| Na | ⓘ Plagioclase | (Na,Ca)[(Si,Al)AlSi2]O8 |
| Mg | Magnesium | |
| Mg | ⓘ Biotite | K(Fe2+/Mg)2(Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe]2Si2O10)(OH/F)2 |
| Mg | ⓘ Cordierite | (Mg,Fe)2Al3(AlSi5O18) |
| Mg | ⓘ Fayalite-Forsterite Series | |
| Al | Aluminium | |
| Al | ⓘ Andalusite | Al2(SiO4)O |
| Al | ⓘ Almandine | Fe32+Al2(SiO4)3 |
| Al | ⓘ Biotite | K(Fe2+/Mg)2(Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe]2Si2O10)(OH/F)2 |
| Al | ⓘ Cordierite | (Mg,Fe)2Al3(AlSi5O18) |
| Al | ⓘ Microcline | K(AlSi3O8) |
| Al | ⓘ Sillimanite | Al2(SiO4)O |
| Al | ⓘ Plagioclase | (Na,Ca)[(Si,Al)AlSi2]O8 |
| Si | Silicon | |
| Si | ⓘ Andalusite | Al2(SiO4)O |
| Si | ⓘ Almandine | Fe32+Al2(SiO4)3 |
| Si | ⓘ Biotite | K(Fe2+/Mg)2(Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe]2Si2O10)(OH/F)2 |
| Si | ⓘ Cordierite | (Mg,Fe)2Al3(AlSi5O18) |
| Si | ⓘ Microcline | K(AlSi3O8) |
| Si | ⓘ Quartz | SiO2 |
| Si | ⓘ Sillimanite | Al2(SiO4)O |
| Si | ⓘ Fayalite-Forsterite Series | |
| Si | ⓘ Plagioclase | (Na,Ca)[(Si,Al)AlSi2]O8 |
| S | Sulfur | |
| S | ⓘ Chalcopyrite | CuFeS2 |
| S | ⓘ Pentlandite | (NixFey)Σ9S8 |
| S | ⓘ Pyrrhotite | Fe1-xS |
| K | Potassium | |
| K | ⓘ Biotite | K(Fe2+/Mg)2(Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe]2Si2O10)(OH/F)2 |
| K | ⓘ Microcline | K(AlSi3O8) |
| Ca | Calcium | |
| Ca | ⓘ Plagioclase | (Na,Ca)[(Si,Al)AlSi2]O8 |
| Ti | Titanium | |
| Ti | ⓘ Biotite | K(Fe2+/Mg)2(Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe]2Si2O10)(OH/F)2 |
| Fe | Iron | |
| Fe | ⓘ Almandine | Fe32+Al2(SiO4)3 |
| Fe | ⓘ Biotite | K(Fe2+/Mg)2(Al/Fe3+/Mg/Ti)([Si/Al/Fe]2Si2O10)(OH/F)2 |
| Fe | ⓘ Chalcopyrite | CuFeS2 |
| Fe | ⓘ Cordierite | (Mg,Fe)2Al3(AlSi5O18) |
| Fe | ⓘ Magnetite | Fe2+Fe23+O4 |
| Fe | ⓘ Pentlandite | (NixFey)Σ9S8 |
| Fe | ⓘ Pyrrhotite | Fe1-xS |
| Fe | ⓘ Fayalite-Forsterite Series | |
| Ni | Nickel | |
| Ni | ⓘ Pentlandite | (NixFey)Σ9S8 |
| Cu | Copper | |
| Cu | ⓘ Chalcopyrite | CuFeS2 |
Localities in this Region
- Western Australia
- Halls Creek Shire
- Mabel Downs Station
- Sally Malay Mine
- Mabel Downs Station
- Halls Creek Shire
Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality
Australia
- Halls Creek OrogenOrogen
- Lamboo ProvinceGeologic Province
- North Australian ElementCraton
- Northern Territory
- Kalkarindji Igneous ProvinceGeologic Province
- Western Australia
- Sally Malay Nickel Metallogenic ProvinceGeologic Province
Australian PlateTectonic Plate
- North Australian Craton
- Kimberley CratonShield
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References
Sally Malay Mine, Mabel Downs Station, Halls Creek Shire, Western Australia, Australia