Use of mercury as a pathfinder for buried base-metal deposits in the Parkejaure area, Swedish Lapland

• Main Authors: Dugerdil, Yves, Ek, J., Jaffe, Felice
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: The Institution of Mining and Metallurgy (London) 1975
• Subjects: info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/550; Arctic; Coleman; Jokkmokk; Lapland; Norrbotten
• Online Access: https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:156875

The Parkejaure area is situated just above the Arctic circle, 35 km northwest of the town of Jokkmokk, Norrbotten County. It is entirely covered by glacial till, which can reach a thickness of 5 m. Geochemical investigations outlined three distinct copper anomalies - the eastern, central and western anomalies. The central anomaly corresponds to a copper mineralization, which was confirmed by seven drill-holes. This mineralization is located in a biotite-amphibole gneiss of Precambrian age, which is intruded by a younger granite. An additional geochemical prospecting programme was carried out in the area to test the correlation between mercury and base metals and, in particular, to check the reliability of mercury as a pathfinder for buried sulphide deposits. Soil samples were taken along a traverse across the geochemical anomalies. The samples were analysed by the atomic absorption method with a Perkin-Elmer Coleman MAS 50 instrument. The sampled line crosses the eastern and the central copper anomalies. The mercury values of the eastern zone are well correlated with the base-metal values: the copper anomaly of this zone coincides with the highest mercury values. This anomaly has not yet been drilled. The copper anomaly in the central zone, which overlies a mineralized zone proven by seven drill-holes, is not correlated with mercury values. This lack of correlation is interpreted as being the result of drainage interferences, which affect differentially the mercury and the base metals. The western anomaly was not sampled. Results obtained to date indicate that mercury seems to be a useful alternative in the outlining of elastic anomalies related to buried sulphide deposits in glaciated areas. The possible interference of anomalous hydromorphic patterns must be borne in mind, however, since in this case mercury and base metals can no longer be correlated.