| Title | Platinum, Pd, Mo, Au and Re deportment in hyper-enriched black shale Ni-Zn-Mo-PGE mineralization, Peel River, Yukon, Canada |
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| Author | Gadd, M G ; Peter,
J M; Jackson, S E; Yang, Z; Petts, D |
| Source | Ore Geology Reviews vol. 107, 2019 p. 600-614, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oregeorev.2019.02.030  Open Access |
| Image |  |
| Year | 2019 |
| Alt Series | Natural Resources Canada, Contribution Series 20180307 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV |
| Document | serial |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | paper; on-line; digital |
| File format | pdf; html |
| Province | Yukon |
| NTS | 106E/13 |
| Area | Peel River |
| Lat/Long WENS | -135.9667 -135.5667 65.9333 65.8167 |
| Subjects | economic geology; geochemistry; mineralogy; Middle Devonian; mineral deposits; nickel; zinc; molybdenum; platinum; palladium; gold; mineral exploration; mineral potential; ore mineral genesis;
mineralization; ore controls; bedrock geology; lithology; sedimentary rocks; black shales; mineral assemblages; mass spectrometer analysis; sulphides; millerite; pyrite; marcasite; diagenesis; mineral enrichment; bulk composition; trace element
analyses; paragenesis; modelling; marine environments; lithogeochemistry; Road River Group; Canol Formation; Richardson Trough; platinum group elements; Phanerozoic; Paleozoic; Devonian |
| Illustrations | geoscientific sketch maps; stratigraphic charts; lithologic sections; photographs; tables; photomicrographs; geochemical plots |
| Program | Targeted Geoscience Initiative (TGI-5) Volcanic and sedimentary systems |
| Released | 2019 03 06 |
| Abstract | Middle Devonian Ni-Mo-Zn-Pt-Pd-Au-Re hyper-enriched black shales (HEBS) from Peel River in north Yukon have high abundances of platinum group elements (PGE; ca. 500 ppb), Au (40-130 ppb) and Re (8-55
ppm). Mineralization occurs in up to three thin (0.5-10 cm thick) layers that include the regionally extensive HEBS at the Road River Group-Canol Formation stratigraphic contact (e.g., correlative with the Nick Ni-Mo-Zn-PGE-Au-Re prospect,
northwestern Yukon); two other previously undocumented HEBS layers stratigraphic layers underlie the upper layer. Although the three different layers have minor textural differences, they display marked mineralogical and geochemical similarities to
each other. Millerite is the predominant Ni sulfide, and it postdates several textural varieties of pyrite.
A longstanding, unresolved question regarding this mineralization in Yukon is the mineralogical host of PGE, Mo, Au and Re. We analyzed the
sulfide mineral assemblages using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). LA-ICP-MS analyses reveal that pyrite within all of the layers is the principal host of PGE, Re, Au and Mo, and that paragenetically late
pyrite (spatially associated with millerite) contains the highest abundances, with up to 4 ppm Pd, 8 ppm Pt, 500 ppm Re, 1.5 ppm Au and 7000 ppm Mo. Rare, late pyrite-marcasite veins in the upper HEBS layer cross-cut all previous generations of
sulfides and also postdate quartz cement. The late sulfide veins are devoid of Mo-Pd-Re-Pt-Au, indicating that mineralization coincided with early to late diagenesis and predates lithification. The high abundances of these elements in diagenetic
varieties of pyrite suggests that hyper-enrichment occurred near the seafloor, and that this suite of elements was likely derived from ambient seawater. |
| Summary | (Plain Language Summary, not published)
This study summarizes the findings of laser ablation-inductively couple plasma-mass spectrometry investigations of sulfide mineral assemblages from the
Peel River shale-hosted Ni-Mo-PGE showing. This research is the first to systematically use LA-ICP-MS for this particular type of mineral deposit, and the analyses reveal that pyrite is the primary host of economically important metals. In addition
informing about the relative time of mineralization, this work also has implications for mineral processing. We make recommendations for extracting metals based on the mineralogy. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 313157 |
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