The age of the formation is established to be Guzhangian to Cambrian Stage 10 (or Merioneth to Dresbachian in the regional stratigraphy), dated at ranging from 500 to 488 Ma.

[1] The formation has provided the first known Late Cambrian archaeocyathid,[2] and Knightoconus antarcticus, an ancestor to the cephalopods.

[3] The Minaret Formation forms a discontinuous limestone unit exposed from Webers Peaks in the northern Heritage Range to the Independence Hills in Horseshoe Valley of the Ellsworth Mountains.

At Mount Rosenthal, at the head of Horseshoe Valley, the Minaret Formation is formed predominantly of white to pale grey micritic limestone with thin, discrete interbeds of oolitic and oncolithic grainstones.

[2] During the final stages of Gondwanian deformation, structureless and stratified post-cleavage breccia bodies formed in the carbonate lithologies of the Minaret Formation, due to cave-like dissolution processes and contemporaneous low temperature hydrothermal activity.