Introduction

All igneous intrusive structures are almost always concealed under the roofing bedrock which would
have a more prominent and recurring outcrops in an ideal locality. The odds of these igneous structures
being exposed are controlled by many factors such as the lithology, movement and orientation of
structures, etc. This partly places a slight delay on successful prospecting since the majority of the most
sought-for economically rich minerals are present as hydrothermal and magmatic ores.
Given the limited number of outcrops, stream sediment geochemistry is the tool in the exploration of
mining minerals that may be contained at various sources which the stream as covered. It is the
systematic sampling of stream sediments. It is widely applicable in regional exploration and requires a
bedrock outcrop or shallow sub-crop and targets both metallic deposit styles.
In this traversing exercise, 160m of Sapphire Creek was mapped. The structures were measured and the
lithology, as well as the origin of float sediments were studied and recorded. There were four stations
used as vector points marked along the creek as A, B, C and D.

Physiographic Setting
The creek is situated south of the Port Moresby-Rouna Falls Road, 17 miles south-east of Port Moresby.
Its GPS coordinates are 5.47S150.79E. The setting is elevated at 120m above sea level. Sapphire
Creek runs down on a generally flat area with a gentle upwards elevation of 0.1.
It has two types of vegetation in this area. The first one includes trees and other plants of wet areas in
contrast to the second lot where there is only grass and dry woody plants giving an arid appearance.
The difference in the vegetation can be attributed to the type of source rock for the soil and the extent
to which it has been deposited.

Geological History
The first bedrock is of late-mid Eocene age and is part of the Port Moresby Beds. It is one of the more
recent formation and regionally consists of partly calcareous argilite, shale, calcilutite, minor tuff and
associated slump breccia. In this locality, the original beds were mostly agglomerates (minor tuff and
slump breccia) and partly calcareous argilite.
These strata were intruded by the Sadowa Gabbro in the early Eocene- Late Oligocene. This intrusion
caused metamorphism and created metamorphic zoning mostly at areas to the north west. Although
the intrusion has now surfaced at the creek, no clear evidence of zoning on a relatively large scale was
observed.
The intrusion also caused later episodes of faulting and other deformation to the strata. The latest event
is the deposition of quaternary sediments which now have overlain most of the landscape.

Sediments
The type of float sediments found in the creek were uniform at all stations. The sizes vary from silt sized
to cobble sized. They smaller sized liquor dregs were mostly well reworked and composed largely of

chert clasts from the Port Moresby Beds with minor calcitic inclusions. The larger sediments were found
to be more angular and may have formerly been part of the astrolabe agglomerates.
Some pebble sized sediments showed malachite staining giving them a faint blue-greenish colour,
indicating the presence of copper in solution. Others showed chlorite alteration suggesting the presence
of low grade metamorphism through contact of the parent rock with the Sadowa Gabbro. These
sediments (chlorite alteration) were transported mostly by the Brown River and Goldie River from the
North.
The sediment composition is found to be consistent in the whole region mapped. Gold panning was also
carried out but none were found in the several attempts.

Figure 1: Some of the pebble sized

sediments at Sapphire Creek
Bedrocks
The Sadowa Gabbro intrusions make up almost 90% of all the exposed bedrocks. The other 10%
consists of the Astrolabe Agglomerates.

Figure 2: A planar view of Sapphire Creek.

The Sadowa Gabbro intrusions are all preserved well towards the bank but have been eroded where the
creek runs. In all parts, there are quartz veins present amongst the faults. Due to the brittle nature of
the mineral quartz, most veins have been eroded away to a certain degree, leaving the bedrock to
appear highly fractures.
The intrusions are responding to the same stress hence resulting akin attitude of the fault planes found
at different areas along the creek. All of the faults are left lateral faults and clearly show displacements.
One of the faults found on the intrusion had a measured displacement of 22cm.
The Astrolabe Agglomerates are scattered on the banks. They at least two layers of graded bedding and
the breccias are cemented by volcanic tuff. Some of the faults found on these rock bodies are perfectly
aligned with the Gabbro intrusions indicating that the faulting occurred after they had been emplaced.
These Astrolabe Agglomerates are also responsible for the larger float sediments found in the creek.
However, they become rare upstream as the creek curves.

Figure 3: The Astrolabe Agglomerates, they

make up the Sogeri Plateu. Notice the 30cm
ruler in the centre.

Figure 4: Sections of the Sadowa Gabbro. The

development and weathering of quartz veins
has left it with a high fracture appearance.

Structures
Almost all of the faults measured were oriented in the north-west to south-east direction. Two of the
measured beds dip towards the south-west while three are dipping towards the north-east. A horizontal
fault is also present and was found to be continuous through both the Astrolabe Agglomerates and
Sadowa Gabbro.
The faults are all strike-slip faults and are left lateral (sinistral). They are controlled by a master fault to
which they are generally perpendicular. There is one fault observed that has a north-west to south-east
azimuth and appears dissimilar which can be associated with the other fault set.

Figure 6: The planar view of how the fault planes

are oriented in relation to the master fault

Figure 5: Stereographic projection of all faults

along Sapphire Creek.

Conclusion
The Sapphire Creek is a part of the extensive drainage avenues of the high altitude areas of Port
Moresby Beds. It contains evidence of copper presence as hydroxide as shown by malachite staining of
some float sediments. It also presents a question of why there was limited metamorphism because of
chlorite alteration being present only in float sediments and not on near by rocks.
On a regional scale, its faults are all controlled by a nearly vertical dip-slip master fault that lies towards
the north. All of the faults are steeply dipping and formed nearly parallel to each other.

The University of Papua New Guinea

Earth Science Division
Field and Structural Geology

Sapphire Creek
The occurrences and systems

Bryan Matu
20120097