| Title | Environmental impact of oxide-sulphide gossans revealed by orientation surveys for base metals in the Canadian Artic Islands |
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| Author | Williamson, M -C ;
McNeil, R J; Day, S J; McCurdy, M; Rainbird, R; Grunsky, E |
| Source | Geological Association of Canada-Mineralogical Association of Canada, Joint Annual Meeting, Abstracts Volume vol. 37, 2014 p. 289  Open Access |
| Links | Online - En ligne
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| Year | 2014 |
| Alt Series | Earth Sciences Sector, Contribution Series 20130459 |
| Meeting | Geological Association of Canada - Mineralogical Association of Canada Joint Annual Meeting; Fredericton; CA; May 21-23, 2014 |
| Document | serial |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | paper |
| File format | pdf |
| Province | Northwest Territories; Nunavut |
| Area | Arctic Islands; Axel Heiberg Island; Victoria Island |
| Subjects | environmental geology; geochemistry; economic geology; environmental impacts; environmental studies; environmental analysis; sulphides; sulphide deposits; base metals; base metal deposits; oxides;
metallic oxides; gossans |
| Program | Environmental Geoscience environmental impacts and adaptation in the northern environment |
| Released | 2014 01 01 |
| Abstract | Canada`s remote Arctic Islands represent the last frontier for regional geochemical surveys to be conducted in the search for indicator mineral signatures as vectors to ore deposits. The Geo - Mapping
for Energy and Minerals Program (GEM) provided new opportunities for the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) to carry out geochemical exploration surveys in Canada's North in areas selected for bedrock mapping. New geochemical databases acquired under
the GEM program could be merged with those obtained by mineral exploration companies during previous orientation surveys in the same area. A case in point is the regional stream sediment and water geochemical survey carried out by the GSC in 2010 -
2011 in selected areas of the Minto Inlier on Victoria Island, Northwest Territories. The resulting databases for Lead and Zinc were combined with those acquired by Great Northern Mining and Exploration (GNME) during their exploration program for Cu
- Ni - PGE and diamondiferous kimberlite between 2005 and 2008. In this paper, we compare the results of the GNME and GEM - Victoria Island regional geochemical surveys with those obtained during an environmental study of gossans carried out near
South Fiord, Axel Heiberg Island, Nunavut, in July 2013. The objectives of the 2013 orientation survey were to (1) identify the areal extent of base metal signatures and dispersion down drainage of a known gossan; and (2) determine the economic
potential of local intrusive rocks by comparing the mineralogy and geochemistry of the bedrock, gossans and stream sediments. Recent studies of the lithogeochemistry of mafic igneous rocks exposed on central Victoria Island and Axel Heiberg Island
suggest that both Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) are prospective for Ni - Cu - PGE. The following questions are explored: (1) How do oxide - sulphide gossans influence the composition of the heavy metal fr action of stream sediments? (2) What is the
effect on water pH and geochemistry? (3) What are the implications for Ni - Cu - PGE mineralization potential in LIPs? |
| Summary | (Plain Language Summary, not published)
The abstract describes the results of regional geochemical surveys carried out on Victoria Island, Northwest Territories, and Axel Heiberg Island,
Nunavut. The two orientation surveys revealed the areal extent of base metal signatures and dispersion down drainage of known gossans; and (2) clarified the economic potential of local intrusive rocks by comparing the mineralogy and geochemistry of
the bedrock, gossans and stream sediments. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 293662 |
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