Episode 77: What's up with the Witwatersrand?

This week we've got a geological bonananza! Lesley sits down with Dr. Hartwig Frimmel to chat about the genesis of the Witwatersrand (Wits) gold deposit in South Africa. The geological anomaly has received renewed attention thanks to a recent discovery by Novo Resources (TSXV: NVO; USOTC: NSRPF), which reported on July 12 that it had found gold nuggets up to 4 cm long during trenching at its Purdy’s Reward gold prospect in Western Australia. Novo (12:00) has traced the nugget-rich, 2.7-billion-year-old conglomeratic package almost continuously along an 8 km strike length. The rocks dip 10 degrees southeast under a cover of basalts. Dr. Frimmel explains that the "biggest controversy" behind the Wits remains the source of gold. He argues that acidic rain liberated gold from the crust and gold-rich streams flushed across the hinterland, depositing gold in chemically-reactive algal mats. Those algal mats only started to blossom around 2.9 billion years ago – which is why the richest part of the Wits is 2.9 billion years. He believes these algal matts were then eroded and flushed into the basin. Timeline Novo Resources 17:50 Greenstone belts across the world 33:45 Dating gold-porphyry deposits 36:55 Wits 2.0: Is there a twin? 40:00 Articles referenced: Novo Resources strikes gold at Purdy’s Reward in Australia: http://www.northernminer.com/news/novo-resources-strikes-gold-purdys-reward/1003788541/ Come See the Mine of the Future – October 23, 2017: www.northernminer.com/progressive-mine-forum/ Music Credits: "Cool Rock" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ "Isolated" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/