OREAS 928

OREAS 928 is one of a suite of sixteen copper ore CRMs (OREAS 920 to OREAS 935) prepared from material from the CSA mine located near the town of Cobar in central western New South Wales, Australia. The copper ore body is hosted by the Early Devonian CSA Siltstone, a thinly bedded turbiditic sequence of carbonaceous siltstones and mudstones with minor coarser units. The CSA Siltstone is part of the Cobar Supergroup, consisting of lower syn-rift sediments and upper post-rift sag phase sediments. The mineralisation is structurally controlled and confined to a number of steeply dipping bodies within a major shear zone on the eastern margin of the Early Devonian Cobar Basin. It is characterised by low-grade greenschist alteration and epigenetic low-grade mineralisation enveloping higher-grade shoots of vein complexes or sub-massive to massive sulphides. The sulphides include chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite, pyrite, sphalerite, galena, bornite and cubanite. Iron-rich chlorite and silica are prominent alterations in the siltstone host.

Twenty two commercial analytical laboratories participated in the program to characterise the analytes reported below. The following methods were employed for method specific certification:

• Four acid (HCl-HNO₃-HF-HClO₄) digestion with ICP-OES, ICP-MS or AAS finish (19 laboratories);
• Aqua regia digestion with ICP-OES, ICP-MS or AAS finish (19 laboratories);
• Peroxide fusion with ICP-OES, ICP-MS or AAS finish (12 laboratories).