The Mineral Sands of Western Australia's South Coast

I find this article amazing- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-22/sands-500-million-year-journey-from-antarctica-to-wa/11726422

Mineral Sands (ilmenite, & all it contains) exist all around the S/West coast, & up into the lower Mid-west around Eneabba where Ilkua Resources have a mine
There are still some smaller mines around the South West

It's amazing though how they traced it's origins all the way to Antarctica. I read somewhere a while back about a huge boulder somewhere near Heathcote, that had its origins in Tasmania- Awesome.To think if I lived long enough I could wait until the GT was in my backyard :lol:

next minute in Antarctica ....

Next minute in the Pilbara....



https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-22/rio-tinto-launches-investigation-over-crushed-ute/11728944

road rage ... in the Pilbara ... the truck always wins

Been all around that area trying to locate bigger garnets than just the sand and been lucky last trip with a nice cutter

That's a good one madtuna "The ute was significantly damaged" :argh:

I reckon had it been a Perentie a wash down would have righted things with Tyrepower required to attend to the severely damaged loader wheel
mike

Today, mineral sands deposits are being mined across the inland from the Broken Hill region then west across the Nullabor.
In the 1950's /60's the beaches north of Newcastle to and beyond the Qld. border were a nearly continuous line of beach sand miners of which Iluka Minerals is one survivor.
In some places, the huge dredge holes left behind are declared "natural lakes" by NPWS.
History soon forgotten and changed to suit today.
mike

How did you fare in the Bushfires Mike?

LW..

Best job I ever had was as a young 19 - 20 yr old restoring the background of beaches of the mid north and north coast for Cudgeon RZ; surfing every afternoon if the waves were on. Found lots of aboriginal artefacts, interesting at the time but not collectable ... then, wish I had known, so they are still lying in the sands along the coast.

Deepseeker said:

It's amazing though how they traced it's origins all the way to Antarctica. I read somewhere a while back about a huge boulder somewhere near Heathcote, that had its origins in Tasmania- Awesome.To think if I lived long enough I could wait until the GT was in my backyard :lol:

Click to expand...

What they are saying is not "all the way to Antarctica" but that Antarctica was joined to Australia - so it didn't have far to go. The Heathcote (Knowsley) "Stranger" glacial erratic came riding there on a glacier.



Antarctica-Australia separation at different times (20 Ma means 20 million years before the present)

Ice was present in Australia into what is northern Australia when the Knowsley erratic may have arrived - you can still see the rock outcrops around Knowsley that were polished by ice sliding over them:





Even during the last glacial period only about 20,000 years ago, the aborigines would have suffered badly:
https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2013/09/ice-age-struck-indigenous-australians-hard/

Thanks goldierocks, as always great pics and explanations. :Y: