Area C mine, Mining Area C, Weeli Wolli Creek Area, East Pilbara Shire, Western Australia, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Area C mine	Mine
Mining Area C	- not defined -
Weeli Wolli Creek Area	Area
East Pilbara Shire	Shire
Western Australia	State
Australia	Country

Mining Area C (MAC) is an iron ore mine owned and operated by BHP Billiton under the Mt Goldsworthy Joint Venture (85% BHP Billiton, 7% Mitsui Iron Ore Corporation, 8% ITOCHU Minerals and Energy of Australia).

Packsaddle, North Flank and South Flank may also be used to refer to Mining Area C, but these names refer to more specific subdivisions within the mine site. The site currently encompasses a series of pits along the North Flank and Packsaddle and ranges. Mining began in 2003 in C-Deposit (of North Flank).

The ranges strike east-west, and are the result of the outcrop of the Marra Mamba and Brockman Banded Iron Formation (BIF) units of the Hamersly Basin. North Flank is the Marra Mamba outcrop on the northern limb of the Weeli Wolli anticline, and South Flank is the southern limb of Marra Mamba. Packsaddle is the Brockman unit, stratigraphically above Marra Mamba and located north of North Flank. The Brockman BIF of the southern limb forms Mount Robinson.

Mineralisation is martite-goethite-ocherous goethite enrichment of the Marra Mamba (North and South Flank ranges) and Brockman (Packsaddle range) BIFs.

Much of the Pilbara region has a variable ferricrete/meteoric influenced overprinting zone known as 'hardcap'. In places the hardcap is quite vuggy, and it is within these vugs that well developed minerals may grow. The best of the samples found to date lie along the hardcapped paleo-surface of the tertiary detrital/bedrock boundary. Some nice specimens have also been collected from within the hardcapped/cemented tertiary detritals.

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