Publication Type:

Book Chapter

Authors:

Taranovic, V.; Lesher, C. M.; Houlé, Michel G.; Bedard, Jean H.

Source:

A special issue on Archean magmatism, volcanism, and ore deposits; part 1; Komatiite-associated Ni-Cu- (PGE) sulfide and greenstone-hosted Au deposits, Economic Geology Publishing Company, Lancaster, PA, United States, Volume 107, p.835-857 (2012)

ISBN:

0361-0128

Keywords:

Canada, chemical composition, copper ores, country rocks, eastern canada, foot wall, hanging wall, host rocks, ICP mass spectra, igneous rocks, KOMATIITE, mass spectra, massive deposits, massive sulfide deposits, metal ores, metals, mineral deposits, genesis, mineralization, nickel ores, Ontario, orientation, platinum group, platinum ores, rare earths, shear, spectra, textures, volcanic rocks, whole rock, zoning

Abstract:

The C zone, located in Bannockburn Township approximately 30 km W of Matachewan, Ontario, is one of several komatiite-associated Ni-Cu-(PGE) deposits within the 2710 to 2704 Ma Tisdale volcanic episode of the Abitibi greenstone belt. The sulfides, host rocks, and country rocks are superbly exposed over a strike length of 150 m in glacially polished and hydraulically stripped outcrops and have been intersected in 53 diamond drill holes. The mineralized zone is up to 2.5 m thick and comprises (from base to top) massive to semimassive, net-textured, and disseminated sulfide facies characterized by a pyrrhotite-pentlandite-chalcopyrite-magnetite assemblage. The massive sulfide zone contains an anastomosing network of dextral and sinistral shears that are oriented broadly subparallel to the contacts with the footwall dacite and hanging-wall andesite. Some contacts with underlying dacites are sheared, but others are scalloped and bordered by skeletal-euhedral Fe-rich chromites and appear to be primary magmatic features. The footwall rocks grade from chloritized dacites within 20 to 30 cm of the contact into massive and brecciated plagioclase-phyric dacites farther away from the contact. The host unit is up to 8 m thick and comprises massive olivine porphyritic and ortho- to mesocumulate komatiite in the eastern and central parts and a texturally heterolithic komatiite breccia in the western part. The breccia is composed of subrounded to subangular clasts 1 to 30 cm in length that exhibit mainly fine (80 m). The komatiitic sequence at the C zone is much thinner than most other sequences within the Tisdale volcanic episode and is oriented oblique to the NW trend of the regional stratigraphy, but all contacts appear conformable and all younging indicators are uniformly to the SSE, suggesting that the local sequence is intact. The C zone is similar in many respects to other type I (Kambalda-type) komatiite-associated Ni-Cu-(PGE) deposits in the Abitibi greenstone belt but differs by not being confined within a well-developed footwall embayment and in being partly hosted by komatiitic breccias. The C zone Ni-Cu-(PGE) mineralization appears to be hosted in the eastern part of the stripped exposure by a thin lava pathway and in the western part by breccias formed via lateral breakout and roof collapse.

Notes:

GeoRef, Copyright 2018, American Geological Institute.<br/>2012-084236<br/>Bannockburn Ontario