Windimurra Intrusion - Economic Geology

Economic Geology

The Windimurra Intrusion has been of great interest to mineral exploration companies for decades, as it is one of the thickest and largest ultramafic intrusions in the world, though it has been fragmented and mostly removed by shearing unlike the Bushveld Igneous Complex of South Africa.

Exploration has focused on finding basal nickel sulfide and chromitite deposits, although that has proved fruitless as the lower zone is not exposed. However, exploration for vanadium deposits related to oxide cumulate layers higher up in the intrusion has proved successful, with the opening of a major vanadium operation in the 1990s.