Muckaty Manganese Mine, Muckaty Station, Barkly Region, Northern Territory, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Muckaty Manganese Mine	Mine
Muckaty Station	Station (farming)
Barkly Region	Region
Northern Territory	Territory
Australia	Country

Three spellings of the local station and deposit were found (Muckatty station and Mucketty manganese), the most common as the main heading. The mine is 110 kilometres north of Tennant Creek, and 10 kilometres east of the Stuart Highway. The manganese is found in the nose of the shallowly north north-west plunging Bootu Syncline. Open pits form a south pointing U shape, with the Bootu mine (listed separately on Mindat) as the eastern workings, and the more linear pits on the western flank as the Muckaty mine. A processing plant, several buildings, tailings pond, residential camp, and airstrip services both mines. Ore is hauled by truck 60 kilometres west to a railway siding, then railed to Darwin for export.

The manganese forms a dark coloured escarpment, at odds with the laterite escarpments in the district. It was known for many decades but few took an interest, until manganese was needed for the Rum Jungle processing plant. Doyle and Farlow (surnames) pegged the lease in 1954, with mining taking place from 1955 to 1963, from a small pit at the escarpment.

OM Holdings was started in 1994, by a Singaporean engineer. The company started mining at Muckaty/Bootu in 2005. The mine was upgraded in 2009, with a 13 year life expected. However, in 2015 the mine closed due to low manganese prices.

The manganese beds conform to the bedding, dipping 20-30 degrees north-east, on the south-western side of the syncline, with its axis north north-west. There are two units of manganese named Muckaty 1 and 2, separated by low ground, showing as a sandstone escarpment, with a manganese mineralised horizon, and surrounding sandstone stained with manganese. Isolated outcrops continue to the south-east. Adjacent to the bodies is quartzite, formed from faulting.

Manganese ore is grey to black, massive to reinform psilomelane, streaked with veins of pyrolusite, with minor manganite in the richest areas. There are also small inclusions of clay and chert commonly in the ore. Average grade ore also includes much glassy quartz grains, with the lowest grade ore being sandstone replaced by soft sooty or earthy manganese oxides, the surrounding sandstone stained by the manganese.

Gangue includes barite, calcite, gypsum and silica. Barite is found as crystals in the ore, associated with travertine lime in brecciated siltstone, below the ore horizon, and a half inch vein in the ore showing a comb structure. 'Nests' of gypsum crystals were found growing from the wall and roof of a cave in the ore. Thin coatings of translucent glassy silica coat fractures in the ore. Quartz coated with manganese oxides is found as scree below the deposits. How much of this remains with open pits mining taking place is unclear, with the source dated before modern mining.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

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