not_specified

The Irvine Lake and Gravel lake map-areas (NTS 105B/10,11) lie within the northern Omineca Belt, west of the Tintina-Northern Rocky Mountain Trench (NRMT) fault. The eastern part of the area is underlain by Proterozoic to early Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks of Cassiar terrane, a fragment of the North American miogeocline which has been displaced northward on the Tintina-NRTM fault. The western part of the area is underlain by basaltic metavolcanics, serpentinized ultramafic rocks, metagabbro, and cherty and calcareous metasediments of the Slide Mountain terrane. Unfoliated to weakly foliated granitic intrusives (Marker Lake and Cassiar batholiths and Cabin Creek and Gravel Creek stocks) occur throughout the area intruding both the Cassiar and Slide Mountain terranes. Slide Mountain and Cassiar terranes are juxtaposed by an east-verging thrust referred to in this area as the Zak fault. Southwest of Irvine Lake, the thrust places serpentine, basaltic meta-volcanics, and an undeformed dioritic intrusion onto a footwall consisting of the Proterozoic Tsaydiz Formation and older units. Northwest of Irvine Lake, near Shootamook Creek, the thrust places cherty metasediments of the allochthon onto marble and quartzite inferred to be lower Cambrian Rosella and Boya Formations, respectively. The northern end of the Cassiar batholith extends into the southwestern corner of Irvine Lake map area. Its northeastern contact with rocks of Slide Mountain terrane is a subvertical, northwest-southeast trending mylonite zone several tens of metres wide. Mesoscopic structures including S-C fabrics and shear bands prove dextral displacement parallel to a variably plunging, but commonly sub-horizontal stretching lineation. The mylonite zone lies along a pronounced topographic lineamnet which extends from the trace of the Cassiar fault south of the Alaska Highway northwestwardly into the Irvine Lake map-area rather than veering to the west as previously mapped. Mineral occurrences in this area are primarily near the contact of granitic intrusions and carbonate rocks. Carbonate rocks hosting the deposits belong to the upper Proterozoic Ingenika Group (Swannell, Tsaydiz and Espee formations) rather than the Lower Cambrian Atan Group as has been inferred for nearby deposits in the Rancheria district. Other, non-carbonate-hosted mineral occurrences include a porphyry Mo prospect and Ag, Pb, Zn veins.

The Livingstone Creek area is underlain by metasedimentary and metaigneous rocks of Yukon-Tanana Terrane. It is intruded by at least five distinct suites of intrusive rocks of probable Mississippian to Late Cretaceous ages, at least three of which provide timing constraints on the development of tectonic foliations. Two phases of isoclinal folding, the development of a transposition foliation and late, northeast-vergent open folds characterize the ductile deformation in the area. Brittle-ductile dextral strike-slip deformation is localized along the north-trendingd Abbadie fault zone in the eastern part of the area. Bedrock in the area has potential for lode gold, copper-gold massive sulphide and nickel (platinum-group element?) mineralization along d'Abbadie Fault.

Twelve lithostratigraphic units, including ten autochthonous and two allochthonous units, are recognized, and most of these are divided into 27 subunits. They range from Cambrian to Quaternary in age and include a wide range of sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rock types. Lower Cambrian siliciclastic and carbonate rocks of the Cassiar Batholith predominate. Three phases of structures are identified. First phase structures include bedding and slaty cleavage, of which the latter is attributed to late stage diagenetic recrystallization. Second phase structures trend northwest and include crenulation cleavage and related folds and lineations. They are attributed to northeast-southwest compression resulting from accretion and obduction of allochthonous rocks during arc-continent collision in Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous time. Third phase structures are approximately 90° to the second phase structures and trend northeast. They include joints and related folds and lineations and are attributed to dextral transcurrent movement on Tintina, Kechika and Cassiar faults. Precious and base metal mineralization is found mostly within Paleozoic sedimentary rocks and Cretaceous plutonic rocks and forms predominantly veins and replacement lenses. The dominant sulphides include galena, sphalerite, pyrite and chalcopyrite. Arsenopyrite, freibergite, tetrahedrite, pyrrhotite, wolframite, cassiterite, stannite, fluorite and lepidolite are also present. Common gangue minerals include quartz, siderite and iron and manganese oxides. Mineralization appears to be structurally controlled by the northeast-southwest jointing and, to a lesser extent, lithologically controlled by limestone-phyllite contacts. It is attributed to hydrothermal solutions migrating along the joints and was probably deposited approximately 50 Ma ago. The most useful exploration guide to finding additional mineralization is iron and manganese gossans.

not_specified

The Southwest McQuesten-northern Carmacks area is primarily underlain by rocks of the Yukon-Tanana terrane which is divided into two distinct belts separated by the Willow Creek fault: 1) a central belt of polydeformed, upper greenschist-amphibolite facies metasedimentary and metaplutonic rocks of Permian and older ages; and 2) a northeastern belt of generally undeformed and unmetamorphosed volcano-plutonic rocks of the Early Mississippian Reid Lakes complex. The southern part of the area is underlain mainly by rocks of Quesnellia and Stikinia, including: 1) Paleozoic retrogressed metamorphic rocks of the Boswell assemblage; 2) Upper Triassic augite-phyric volcanic rocks; and 3) Early Jurassic granitoids of the Aishihik plutonic suite. These rocks are dissected by a series of dextral strike-slip faults, probably related to the Teslin fault system. Post-accretion rocks include: 1) mid-Cretaceous biotite monzogranite plutons; 2) dacite and minor basalt of the Upper Cretaceous Carmacks Group; and 3) Quaternary basalt of the Selkirk volcanics. The southwest McQuesten-northern Carmacks area is under-explored, but shares many geological attributes with nearby, highly prospective districts such as the Dawson Range mineral belt, the recently discovered White Gold area and the producing Minto Mine.

not_specified

The southern Nash Creek area is located along the northern boundary of the Selwyn basin, and is underlain mainly by the Ediacaran–Cambrian Hyland Group, the Devonian–Mississippian Earn Group and the Mississippian Tsichu Group. Several Au and polymetallic mineral deposits are hosted by the Hyland Group and Paleozoic platformal carbonate rocks in the surrounding region. The southern Nash Creek area is bordered by regional-scale, southeast-striking thrust faults, which include the Dawson thrust to the northeast and the Robert Service thrust to the southwest. Based on stratigraphic relationships identified during 1:50 000-scale bedrock mapping, Hyland Group rocks in the area are considered to belong to the Cryogenian–Ediacaran Yusezyu Formation, the Ediacaran Algae Formation and the Ediacaran–Terreneuvian Narchilla Formation. Earn Group rocks include mainly shale and lesser amounts of interbedded dolostone, sandstone and shale. Tsichu Group rocks mostly comprise quartzite. The Yusezyu and Narchilla formations host (Paleozoic?) gabbro sills, and the Earn and Tsichu groups host gabbro sills that are considered to belong to the Triassic Galena suite. Rocks in the southern Nash Creek area exhibit a northeast-to-southwest dipping foliation that is axial planar to southeast-trending folds.

not_specified

Thirty-Seven Mile Creek map area, northwest of Whitehorse, straddles the contact between Coast Plutonic Complex and rocks attributed to northern Stikine Terrane. Late Triassic Little River granodiorite and Late Paleocene (57 Ma) Annie Ned granite underlie the western part of the map area. Upper Triassic to Middle Jurassic volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Lewes River and Laberge groups underlie the eastern part of the map. The contact between Coast Plutonic Complex and Stikine Terrane is marked by the Takhini deformation zone - a region of greenschist, gneiss, mylonite, and amphibolite whose protolith is volcanic rocks of Lewes River Group. Potential mineral deposits in this map area include epithermal and mesothermal quartz veins, and magnetite skarns.