Gold distrubution in glacial sediments and soils at Spyder Lake, Hope Bay greenstone belt, NWT and the effects of a permafrost environment ...

• Main Author: Laurus, Kathryn Anne
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2009
• Subjects: Ice; permafrost; Yellowknife
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0052612; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0052612

There is a high potential for economic gold deposits in the Slave Structural Province, NWT. Gold exploration, however, is hampered by a complex cover of Quaternary sediments and limited bedrock outcrops. Furthermore, there is a lack of information on the glacial dispersion of gold and the effects, if any, of postglacial redistribution of gold under prevailing periglacial conditions. Therefore, the partitioning of gold among size and density fractions was determined for the various surficial materials in the vicinity of, and down-ice from, known gold mineralization in the southeastern portion of the Hope Bay Greenstone Belt, 650 km northeast of Yellowknife, NWT. Terrain mapping by Ryder (1992) identified several types of surficial materials consisting of weathered rock, till, marine sediments and mixtures of the different types. Soil and humus samples were collected from thirty-seven pits along five lines on the Wally Grid. The lowermost horizons from each pit, and A and B horizons from selected soil pits, ...