The Proterozoic greater McArthur Basin – New ways of looking at a frontier resource-rich basin

Abstract

The greater McArthur Basin of northern Australia is a vast frontier exploration province for basin-hosted resources, both hydrocarbons (oil and natural gas) and metals (critical metals [e.g. rare earth elements, Co], Cu, Pb, Zn and Au). This basin system covers much of northern Australia and may have included much of North China that lay off northern Australia when the basin formed—ca. 1820–1325 Ma. Hydrocarbon and metal deposits in the basin are largely controlled by host sediment composition and ‘redox traps’ related to ancient water chemistry, which, in-turn, are modulated by biological activity, tectonism and relative sea level change. None of these controls are fully understood or constrained throughout the basin.