Anningie Pegmatite Field, Anningie Station, Barkly Region, Northern Territory, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Anningie Pegmatite Field	Pegmatite Field
Anningie Station	- not defined -
Barkly Region	Region
Northern Territory	Territory
Australia	Country

The Anningie pegmatite field is 20 kilometres north of the Anningie homestead, about 225 kilometres north of Alice Springs, and 30 kilometres as the crow flies west south-west of Barrow Creek. There are two areas of pegmatites, one called Anningie itself, which one source divides into the Reward in the southern area and Saddle Hole Dam northern area; the second called Murray Creek several kilometres to the south-east, either side of Murray Creek. The soon to be Mount Peake vanadium mine is found between the two locations.

Access is difficult, the area being remote, permission need from the station, access tracks specifically to the pegmatites range from limited to non- existent, with a proposed major vanadium mine in the vicinity potentially further limiting access. One thumbnail cassiterite specimen has been found sold previously by an American dealer to a lucky collector. The pegmatites contain spodumene, lepidolite and elbaite, with no further information. An un-substantiated fossicker report states the Murray Creek section contains rubellite. Devil's dice, amethyst in a tributary of Stony Creek, and turquoise-blue quartz veins on a large ridge near Murray Creek (fluorite suggested by the source) is mentioned in passing in one exploration report with no further details.

Tin (cassiterite) was discovered at what would become the Reward mine in 1935, said to be the most substantial in the area. Intermittent mining continued to 1944, of alluvial material by prospectors, but only about 25 tonnes of concentrate was recorded. A further 3.3 tonnes of concentrates was extracted in 1968-1969. Tantalite and galena is also reported. Ore minerals are said to be erratic, and overall a low value.

The pegmatites are found in andalusite-micaeous schist and amphibolite (hornblende-actinolite-plagioclase) of the Lower Proterozoic Lander Beds, intruded by tourmaline bearing pegmatites. Regionally this is intruded by Carpentarian grey coarse porphyritic granite. Many of the pegmatites are barren. Some are radioactive indicating uranium bearing minerals, but modern exploration has found little. The pegmatites are quartz-alkali-feldspar-tourmaline, with minor muscovite, biotite, apatite, cassiterite and tantalite. The pegmatites intrude the amphibolite schists, but are sharply truncated at the margins with arenaceous schists. Cassiterite is found in greisen, with pale green muscovite. Pegmatite size ranges from 30 cms x 20 metres to 20 metres x 1000 metres.

One un-named geologist for Todd River Resources stated the following just before this was written about modern exploration in the area: 'Each successive explorer had a different target, so the available data is shallow and poorly focussed. Each explorer was working to a different narrative, and some even to a different resource model'.

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