| Titre | Exploration potential of fine-fraction heavy mineral concentrates from till using automated mineralogy: a case study from the Izok Lake Cu-Zn-Pb-Ag VMS deposit, Nunavut, Canada
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| Auteur | Lougheed, H D; McClenaghan, M B ; Layton-Matthews, D; Leybourne, M |
| Source | Minerals vol. 10, issue 4, 310, 2020 p. 1-33, https://doi.org/10.3390/min10040310  Accès ouvert |
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| Année | 2020 |
| Séries alt. | Secteur des sciences de la Terre, Contribution externe 20200062 |
| Éditeur | MDPI AG |
| Document | publication en série |
| Lang. | anglais |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.3390/min10040310 |
| Media | papier; en ligne; numérique |
| Formats | pdf; html |
| Province | Nunavut |
| SNRC | 86H |
| Région | Izok Lake |
| Lat/Long OENS | -115.0000 -108.0000 68.0000 64.0000 |
| Sujets | gahnite; dispersion des sédiments; éléments d'indice; gîtes de plomb-zinc; argent; cuivre; gîtes sulfureux; gisements minéraux; prospection minière; méthodes d'exploration; potentiel minier; exploration
de dépôts glaciaires; échantillons de till; géochimie du till; analyses de till; géologie du substratum rocheux; échantillons de minéraux lourds; antecedents glaciaires; écoulement glaciaire; Automatisation; directions d'écoulement glaciaire;
géologie économique; minéralogie; géochimie; Sciences et technologie; Nature et environnement; Phanérozoïque; Cénozoïque; Quaternaire; Précambrien; Protérozoïque |
| Illustrations | cartes géolscientiques généralisées; tableaux; diagrammes schématiques; diagrammes à secteurs; photomicrographies; représentations schématiques; graphique à barres; profils |
| Diffusé | 2020 03 30 |
| Résumé | (disponible en anglais seulement)
Exploration under thick glacial sediment cover is an important facet of modern mineral exploration in Canada and northern Europe. Till heavy mineral concentrate
(HMC) indicator mineral methods are well established in exploration for diamonds, gold, and base metals in glaciated terrain. Traditional methods rely on visual examination of >250 µm HMC material, however this study applies modern automated
mineralogical methods (mineral liberation analysis (MLA)) to investigate the finer (<250 µm) fraction of till HMC. Automated mineralogy of finer material allows for rapid collection of precise compositional and morphological data from a large number
(10,000-100,000) of heavy mineral grains in a single sample. The Izok Lake volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposit, one of the largest undeveloped Zn-Cu resources in North America, has a well-documented fan-shaped indicator mineral dispersal train
and was used as a test site for this study. Axinite, a VMS indicator mineral difficult to identify optically in HMC, is identified in till samples up to 8 km down ice. Epidote and Fe-oxide minerals are identified, with concentrations peaking proximal
to mineralization. Corundum and gahnite are intergrown in till samples immediately down ice of mineralization. Till samples also contain chalcopyrite and galena up to 8 km down ice of mineralization, an increase from 1.3 km for sulfide minerals in
till previously reported for coarse HMC fractions. Some of these sulfide grains occur as inclusions within chemically and physically robust mineral grains and would not be identified visually in the coarse HMC visual counts. Best practices for epoxy
mineral grain mounting and abundance reporting are presented along with the automated mineralogy of till samples down ice of the deposit. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 326111 |
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