Evolution and tectonic setting of the Paleoproterozoic Granites-Tanami Orogen, Western Australia

[Truncated abstract]...Precambrian terrains in Australia are located west of the Phanerozoic "Tasmanides" and consist of the West Australian Craton (WAC), newly defined Central Australian Craton (CAC), North Australian Craton (NAC), and South Australian Craton (SAC). The largely concealed CAC is situated north of the Paterson Orogen and south of the newly defined Willowra Lineament and Willowra Gravity Ridge (or tectonic zone). The lineament is located along the southern margin of the Willowra Gravity Ridge and the northern margin of a magnetic low that extends southeast from the Western Australian coast across the northern part of the Arunta Orogen to Queensland. Gold mineralization appears to be generally concentrated around, or within 50 km of, the Willowra Lineament, which bisects the "Aileron Province" of the Arunta Orogen and has undergone significant reactivation during Paleozoic deformation. Elsewhere, the Proterozoic Paterson Orogen separates the WAC from the CAC and the Arunta Orogen from the SAC, the ca. 1300-1100 Ma Albany-Fraser Orogen separates the WAC and SAC, and the ca. 1080 Ma Pinjarra Orogen forms the western margin of the WAC. Proterozoic rocks in Australia host considerable mineral resources, some of which are amongst the largest in the world (e.g. Olympic Dam Fe-Cu-Au-U, McArthur River- Mount Isa Zn-Pb-Ag, and Telfer Au). These include Paleoproterozoic gold deposits that are not well documented, mainly because the tectonic setting for these largely obscured terranes remains poorly understood, such as the Granites-Tanami Orogen. Furthermore, multiply deformed metamorphosed rocks that have undergone a complex geological history host the vast majority of these deposits. A consequence of this is that the early tectonic evolution of Paleoproterozoic host rocks potentially predates the formation of gold deposits by 10s of million years and does not necessarily relate to the events leading to mineralization. An inadequate understanding of the