New areas and new tools for exploring Abitibi

Robert Marquis
Direction de Géologie Québec

New exploration areas

The 2003 fieldwork season has brought geologists of the Ministère des Ressources naturelles de la Faune et des Parcs (MRNFP) to some of the less well-known areas of the Abitibi Region which, to date, have been relatively untouched by mineral exploration (PDF Format, 104 Kb). East of Matagami, a team of Service géologique du Nord-Ouest (SGNO) geologists, led by Jean Goutier, identified and mapped the extension of the Watson Lake Group, host to several volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits in the Matagami camp. This highly prospective area was staked immediately after disclosure of fieldwork last November, demonstrating how collecting data in the vicinity of known Abitibi mining camps can have real and measurable effects on mineral exploration (PDF Format, 413 Kb).

A vast stretch of the Grenville Front south of Chibougamau was studied by an integrated and multidisciplinary team including Daniel Bandyayera, Sandrine Cadéron, Pierre Rhéaume, Patrice Roy, and Sophie Turcotte. The project consisted of geological mapping with an emphasis on the behaviour of mineralization and associated alteration at high metamorphic grades. In 2003, the team mapped a wide band of Archean volcanic rocks containing komatiites. This band, which had previously been erroneously interpreted as Grenville gneiss, is another newly discovered area with favourable mineral potential (PDF Format, 2,74 Mb). Furthermore, major gold and copper bearing regional structures have been well documented for the first time on the NE flank of the la Dauversière Pluton. The alteration and mineralization associated with these structures are quite similar to those at the Joe Mann Mine, currently under production SW of the pluton (PDF Format, 2,20 Mb).

Finally, east of Rouyn-Noranda, a metallogenic and volcanogenic study of the Blake River Group conducted by SGNO, under the supervision of Benoit Lafrance and Claude Dion, brought out the structural complexity of the volcanic sequence of the Reneault-Dufresnoy Formation. Their re-interpretation significantly increases the potential for discovering new volcanogenic deposits, similar to the nearby Bouchard-Hébert Mine, in a relatively less explored portion of the Blake River Group.

New exploration tools
Immediate and measurable effect