Petrology, Geochemistry and Mantle Minerals of the Walgidee Hills Lamproite, West Kimberley, Western Australia
Authors: Jaques AL 
Published: April 2024

The 17.44 Ma Walgidee Hills lamproite in the West Kimberley province of Western Australia is the type locality for several K-, Ba- and Ti-rich minerals characteristic of lamproites and, at 490 ha, the largest known lamproite. The Walgidee Hills pipe comprises a thin sequence of tuffs and breccia formed by explosive eruptions that excavated a large shallow crater that was infilled by lamproite magma which cooled and crystallised in situ. The lamproite is zoned in grain size, mineralogy, and mineral and rock composition from porphyritic olivine lamproite at the margin through medium-grained lamproite comprised of olivine (altered), titanian phlogopite, diopside, leucite (altered) and titanian potassic richterite to coarse gained lamproite rich in potassic richterite, priderite, jeppeite, perovskite, apatite, wadeite and noonkanbahite at the centre of the body. Compositional zoning is evident across the lamproite in phlogopite (to lower Mg and Al, higher Fe), potassic richterite (to higher Fe and Na, lower Ti), priderite (to lower Cr) and perovskite (to lower Cr and Fe, higher Na, Sr, Y, Nb, U, REE).

The Walgidee Hills lamproite is ultrapotassic and ranges from olivine lamproite (up to ~21 wt % MgO, ~800 μg/g Ni, ~4 wt % K2O) to sanidine/leucite-rich lamproite (~7 wt % MgO, ≤100 μg/g Ni, ~8 wt % K2O) at the centre of the pipe. The lamproite has low Al2O3, total Fe, Na2O and CaO (except for intensely carbonate-veined rocks at the centre) and is highly enriched in TiO2 (3–6.5 wt %), Ba, Rb, Sr, Zr and LREE (LaN = 150–520 x primitive mantle). A transect and geochemical contours show MgO, Ni and Cr contents decrease and P, K, Ti, Fe, Rb, Sr, Y, Zr, Nb, REE, Hf, Pb, Th and U abundances increase inwards to the most evolved rocks at the centre of the pipe, consistent with fractionation by inwards in situ crystallisation.

The parent magma is estimated from the composition of the porphyritic olivine lamproite at the margins of the pipe to have ~16 ± 1 wt % MgO, ~600 μg/g Ni, ~6 wt % K2O with La/Yb ~ 150. Modelling suggests that the most MgO-rich lamproites result from entrainment of ~15–20 wt % mantle olivine in the parent magma. Cooling of the magma resulted in fractional crystallisation of olivine and in situ crystallisation with the evolved coarse-grained lamproites at the centre of the pipe crystallised from residual magma enriched in the more incompatible elements.

Mantle xenocrysts include abundant Cr–Al spinel, chrome diopside, chrome pyrope, and rare diamond. Thermobarometry on the Cr diopside xenocrysts defines a cold paleogeotherm of ~38 mW/m2 and a thick lithosphere (~235 km) extending from the Kimberley craton. Many of the Cr diopsides from the deeper lithospheric mantle are enriched in K, Ba and LREE and these, and the Ti-rich spinel xenocrysts, are inferred to be derived from metasomatised mantle peridotite. The enriched trace element and Sr–Nd–Pb isotopic signatures of the Walgidee Hills lamproite suggest derivation from or extensive incorporation of ancient formerly depleted lithospheric mantle that has undergone metasomatism and long term (≥2 Ga) geochemical enrichment including by melts from Paleoproterozoic subducted crust.