Location:

Laterite. Gove, Northern Territories, Australia

Gove is a large laterite crust-type bauxite deposit of Eocene age, formed from the weathering of shales above a granitic basement. These shales, together with an overlying ferruginous laterite horizon, form the footwall of the deposit. The ores comprise friable pisolitic and nodular bauxite lying above cemented pisolitic, tubular and nodular ores.

Major Minerals:

Gibbsite, boehmite, haematite, limonite, kaolinite

Minor Minerals:

Anatase, brookite, rutile

Trace Minerals:

Include ilmenite, cassiterite

Textures:

Pisoliths have nucleated about rock clasts, haematite or earlier pisoliths. Gibbsite and boehmite are cryptocrystalline and iron-stained by very fine-grained iron oxides

References:

Grubb, 1970; 1973