Skip to content
LITHOEN

Deposit

Pyke Hill

A lateritic nickel deposit on the western side of Lake Carey in the Eastern Goldfields of the Yilgarn Block, Western Australia. The Geological Survey of Western Australia places it in the Eucalyptus – Pyke Hill area, a north-striking zone about 35 km long, and reports identified resources of about 12.82 Mt averaging 1.17 per cent nickel from exploration completed by 1973.

Classification

recognition basis
geologicalSurveyPublication
realm
australia

What this record is, and who says so

Recognised on the basis of

Geological survey publication

A report or map published by a national or regional geological survey.

A deposit is an occurrence of sufficient size and grade that it might, under the most favourable circumstances, be considered to have economic potential. Lithoen records that a named authority made that judgement. It is not a statement that anything here is recoverable, and it is not a resource or a reserve.

How it is interpreted

A deposit is not a mineral system. A source interprets it as an example of one, and interpretations change while the rock does not.

  • Interpreted as an example of Nickel-cobalt laterite system

    By — The Geological Survey of Western Australia's own lateritic-nickel deposit class, as defined in Mineral Resources Bulletin 14 Chapter 3 and applied to this deposit in Chapter 10. The interpretation is the survey's; Lithoen records it and adds nothing.

Reported figures, and what each one is

A sample assay, a deposit average, a compiler total and a reported reserve are different quantities. Each figure below carries which one it is; none of them is a current resource or reserve.

1.17 wt%m Nickel

Resource grade

A grade reported inside a formal mineral-resource estimate. Meaningful only with its reporting framework, category and effective date.

The Geological Survey of Western Australia reports an average nickel grade of 1.17 per cent for the Pyke Hill deposit, stated with respect to an identified resource the bulletin gives as 12.82 Mt and 150,000 t of contained nickel, estimated from exploration carried out between 1968 and 1973.

How this is mapped

One published representation of where Pyke Hill is. Each is one interpretation, by one identified source, at one scale — not the shape of the thing itself.

  • Representative point

    Point · 1 positionspreferred for publication

    A single position standing for something that is not a point. It exists so a feature can be shown on a map or listed by location, and it asserts NOTHING about extent. A representative point for a 2,000 km province is a label anchor, not a location.

    A representative point for the Pyke Hill deposit, from the coordinate the Geological Survey of Western Australia prints for it in Mineral Resources Bulletin 14. It is a label anchor and not an extent: the bulletin describes the deposit as a zone 2,500 m long and up to 370 m wide, and places no outline on the ground.

    Boundary certainty
    ApproximateThe position is known only within a distance much larger than the line width on any map that shows it. Drawing it thinner does not make it better known.
    Status of this geometry
    establishedThe status of the geometry, which need not match the status of what the entity’s claims assert.

    What was done to this geometry

    • By Lithoen — The bulletin prints 29°02'55"S 122°08'55"E in degrees, minutes and whole seconds. Converted to decimal degrees and rounded to 4 decimal places. The source's own precision is therefore about 30 m; the further decimal places are conversion residue rather than knowledge.
    • Before it reached Lithoen — The publication states the position in degrees, minutes and whole seconds; no finer precision exists upstream.

How this record is known

4
Settled consensus
Cited as the accepted position of the discipline.

4 of 4 claims on this page cite at least one registered source. Counts describe how each statement is known, not how likely it is to be true.

What Lithoen records

Each claim states how it is known and cites its evidence.

Establisheda lateritic nickel deposit

How a source classifies it

The Geological Survey of Western Australia classifies Pyke Hill as a lateritic nickel deposit. It appears under the chapter titled 'Lateritic deposits', and the bulletin separately names Pyke Hill among the important lateritic nickel deposits of the Yilgarn Block.

  • assertion basis: SOURCE_CLASSIFICATION
  • definition basis: The bulletin's own chapter-level deposit classification, which it defines in Chapter 3 as deposits formed by deep weathering and ferruginization of olivine-rich ultramafic rocks generally devoid of sulphides.
  • definition basis: The source says 'lateritic nickel' and does not say cobalt for this deposit. Under the classification mapping frozen before any candidate was audited, that wording is accepted for the nickel-cobalt laterite mineral system, because the system is defined by lateritic weathering of ultramafic protolith and cobalt is a companion commodity of it.

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: R.J. 1984 Primary authority

Establishedlateritic profiles developed over serpentinized peridotite to dunite, stated for the area's occurrences collectively

Reported for this deposit

The Geological Survey of Western Australia describes the lateritic occurrences of the Eucalyptus – Pyke Hill area, which include the Pyke Hill deposit, as developed in profiles over bodies of serpentinized peridotite to dunite that appear to be intrusive into the country rocks, on the western side of Lake Carey in the Eastern Goldfields of the Yilgarn Block.

  • assertion basis: SOURCE_REPORTED
  • locality: The Eucalyptus – Pyke Hill area, a north-striking zone about 35 km long on the western side of Lake Carey. The bulletin makes this statement about the area's occurrences collectively, not about the Pyke Hill deposit alone, and the claim is worded at that scope.
  • assumption: This is a statement about the parent rock of surface lateritic profiles. It is not a subsurface observation beneath any deposit and may never be read as one.

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: R.J. 1984 Primary authority

Established1.17 wt%m Nickel

Reported for this deposit

The Geological Survey of Western Australia reports an average nickel grade of 1.17 per cent for the Pyke Hill deposit, stated with respect to an identified resource the bulletin gives as 12.82 Mt and 150,000 t of contained nickel, estimated from exploration carried out between 1968 and 1973.

  • scope: resourceGrade
  • assertion basis: SOURCE_REPORTED
  • temporal basis: The figure is the identified resource as the bulletin reported it in 1984, from work completed by 1973. It is not a current resource statement and nothing here treats it as one.
  • definition basis: An average nickel grade over the identified resource tonnage the bulletin states for this deposit, not a grade at any sampled point and not a cut-off. The bulletin writes the tonnage as approximate and the grade without qualification; the value stored here is the grade.
  • locality: The Pyke Hill deposit, 5 km southwest of Pyke Hill on the western side of Lake Carey.
  • reporting framework: None. The bulletin reports an identified resource in 1984, before the JORC Code existed, and names no reporting code. Lithoen records the absence rather than supplying a classification nobody made.

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: R.J. 1984 Primary authority

EstablishedRecorded as a deposit by the Geological Survey of Western Australia, Mineral Resources Bulletin 14, Chapter 10.

How a source classifies it

Pyke Hill is recorded as a deposit because the Geological Survey of Western Australia heads it as one. Mineral Resources Bulletin 14 titles its section 'EUCALYPTUS – PYKE HILL AREA DEPOSITS' and names the Pyke Hill deposit within it. The same bulletin heads other objects in the same chapter as prospects, so the distinction between the two is the survey's own and not Lithoen's.

  • assertion basis: SOURCE_CLASSIFICATION
  • definition basis: The bulletin's own section headings distinguish DEPOSITS from PROSPECTS within one chapter.

Evidence support: Supported by the cited evidence one source

Evidence: R.J. 1984 Primary authority

In the knowledge graph

Record last updated 2026-09-09. Corrections follow the published corrections policy; superseded claims are retained, never silently edited.