Metallogenic Setting of High-Grade Gold Mineralization in the Neoarchean Hearne Craton, Kivalliq Region, Whale Cove, Nunavut, Canada

• Main Author: Asmail, Mo
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Scholarship@Western 2017
• Subjects: Tavani Segment; Pistol Bay; gold; U/Pb geochronology; mass balance; albitite; Geology; Canada; Hudson; Hudson Bay; Nunavut; Tavani; Kivalliq; Whale Cove
• Online Access: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/5197; https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/etd/article/6973/viewcontent/M.A._Final._1.5._SOGS7_Reduced.pdf; https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/context/etd/article/6973/filename/2/type/additional/viewcontent/Geology_map_of_PBGP___East_Section.pdf

The Pistol Bay Gold Project is located on the northwestern shores of Hudson Bay, in the Tavani Segment of the Neoarchean Kaminak Greenstone Belt in the Hearne Craton of the Western Churchill Province. This project covers several gold prospects whose genesis is hotly debated. The primary objectives of this research are to answer critical questions regarding the nature and timing of gold mineralization. The investigation includes: (1) establish the absolute age of the felsic and mafic intrusions and the relative timing of gold mineralization; (2) document the nature of primary and hydrothermal mineral assemblages related to gold mineralization; and (3) quantify the alteration associated with gold mineralization through mass analysis. Multiple variably altered, deformed and metamorphosed subvolcanic and hypabyssal quartz-feldspar to hornblende-quartz-monzodiorite bodies intrude into complexly folded metaturbidites and high Fe-tholeiitic greenstones. Results of U/Pb zircon dating brackets the orogenic Pistol Bay intrusive suite between ca. 2695±7 to 2668±6 Ma. These intrusive bodies and the supracrustal rocks have been strongly overprinted by Neoarchean deformation and alteration assemblages proximal to gold mineralization: Stage I Propylitic; Stage II Potassic; and Stage III Sodic. Mass balance results clearly indicate mineralized zones have undergone strong sodium enrichment. The Na±Si-S±As gold-bearing fluids infiltrated late Neoarchean brittle - ductile deformation zones and precipitated gold in albitized, Fe-rich domains at the Pistol and Mojo porphyries, the Gill and Vickers complexes, and within Archean metasediments.