Abstract:

Gunung Tempurung is a 600-metre high limestone tower in the Kinta Valley located to the south of the city of Ipoh, Malaysia. The tower contains at least one extensive cave system, Gua Tempurung, which has a length of approximately 4800 metres and a vertical range of about 200 metres. The tower is an erosional remnant of a thick sequence of Silurian - Permian Limestones initially formed as a shelf deposit near an ancient coastline. The carbonate rocks lie adjacent to, and are laterally bounded by, Late Mesozoic granite plutoniic rocks emplaced by activity related to the Late Triassic uplift from plate boundary stresses along the western edge of the Malay Peninsular. The limestones have been folded and compressed between the granites and have been altered by contact metamorphism to marbles and skarn. Hydrothermal mineralisation of the limestone host rock has yeilded deposits of tin, with some tungsten minerals and other minor ores. In the central part of the karst tower a river-cave system, Gua Tempurung, developed from local damming of the north and south outlets of a small catchment derived from the granite upland area to the east. In several locations inside the dry upper chambers of the cave, vein deposits of tin (cassiterite) are evident in walls and ceilings. Additionally alluvial tin deposits derived from the Old Alluvium are present in the cave.