Looking over the new age dating samples published from the East...

Looking over the new age dating samples published from the East Tennant government holes in the past months (New SHRIMPU–Pb geochronology of in situ monazites from the East Tennant area, NorthernTerritory: Results from the MinEx CRC National Drilling Initiative program(d28rz98at9flks.cloudfront.net) I noticed a couple of the below comments in the published paper. ‘The metamorphic assemblages in the East Tennant arewidespread, associated with significant strain, and the abundance or proximityof intrusive rocks have no relationship with metamorphic grade’

In a effort to understand what this means or how they determine the age, temperature/ pressure of old rock I listen to a podcast called geology bites ( https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/geology-bites/id1525620301?i=1000588635223 )

Essentially Monazite crystals were tested for there uranium to radiogenic lead concentrations in samples taken from NDIBK04 and pinpointed peak metamorphism (alteration of the composition or structure of a rock by heat,pressure) occurred at 1831 ± 28 Ma.

In aggregate, samples tested from NDIBK01, NDIBK10 and NDIBK04 suggest that a widespread felsic plutonism affected the entire East Tennant area around 1855–1845 Ma. This differs from NDIBK04 as the samples suggest a slightly differing peak metamorphism timeframe of 1831 ± 28 Ma and also a lower grade of metamorphism compared to the other 2 drill core samples.
They go on to suggest that it formed in the upper greenschist-facies to lower-amphibolite-facies.…( eg low pressure/temperature formation at around300–450 °C or 500-750 °C). The screenshots from a below presentation givesexamples of the pressure temperature gradients at these levels Vs mineral precipitation and then pointto other IOCG deposits around the world that formed in these conditions (Luisa Corriveau’s geohug talk; Louise Corriveau- In each others footsteps: IOCGs, IOAs and primary critical mineral depositsin me - YouTube).

Another thing I noticed in the below tablet from the paper is that the Trace Yttrium concentration in a couple of the monazites samples tested in NDIBK04 show some depletion of Yttrium. This may suggest according to the podcast that the Yttrium was taken up by the Garnet in an earlier phase and therefore was depleted when this monazite grew (table 2.6)…Inconclusive but I wonder if these lower Yttrium samples allude to multiple phases of deformation/mineralisation within the area of government hole 4.

in summation this all suggests we are still in the right area despite not hitting the exact sweet spot yet. So as the Geo’spiece together the details of the core and compare them all to the Geophysicswe wait to see if a target presents itself or if a bigger partner grabs the baton.