Mineral sands occurrences in the Murray Basin, southeastern Australia

The Murray Basin is proving to be a major mineral sand province that eventually will replace Australia's east and west coasts in production of rutile, zircon and ilmenite. Concentrations of relatively coarse-grained heavy mineral are found as beach placers in Pliocene sands of the upper Murray Basin. Typically, they are ilmenite-rich, with 30-40% rutile and zircon. They occur as single or multiple, stacked strandline deposits often > 10 m thick, have mineral grades that exceed 20% in places, are several hundred m wide and 10-25 km long, some containing several Mt of heavy minerals. The rutile and zircon are comparable in grain size and quality to minerals traditionally mined in Australia. The total, coarse-grained mineral sand resources in the Murray Basin are conservatively estimated to be over 50 Mt. The geology and geomorphology of these placer deposits are discussed.