New gold targets in the Chibougamau area

Patrick Houle
Géologie Québec

The Chibougamau mining district is known for its gold and copper potential. And yet, exploration in the western part of the Chibougamau Pluton (PDF Format, 64 kb) was mainly focussed on the search for copper, between 1935 and 1965. Then, investigations were for the most part concentrated along NNE to NE faults. Exploration has always been considerably limited in this area, given the presence of important water bodies. It does however host several NW to NNW ore-bearing structures (PDF Format, 553 kb) that most likely represent late orogenic subsidiary shears associated with major regional shear zones. This preferential NW to NNW orientation constitutes a new first-class gold target in the western part of the Chibougamau Pluton (NTS sheet 32G/15).

To date, most known mineral occurrences in the western part of the Chibougamau Pluton occur in sericitized shear zones; the latter still warrant much deeper exploration. The application of new high-resolution geophysical surveys in this part of the Chibougamau Pluton should allow explorationists to recognize or interpret the presence of NW-SE synvolcanic faults, and to generate very promising exploration targets.

Regional geology
Economic geology
Characterization of mineral occurrences
A porphyry-epithermal continuum

References

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