for a copy of this paper please contact the Yukon Geological Survey; geology@gov.yk.ca.

not_specified

not_specified

Structure imparts a significant control on the distribution of Carlin-type gold mineralization recently discovered in the Nadaleen trend, Yukon. An improved understanding of the structural framework for gold mineralization is essential for continued exploration success and interpreting ore fluid controls. Structural observations from the Osiris cluster of the Nadaleen trend indicate that NW-verging F1 folds were refolded in response to later SSW-NNE directed contraction. F2 folds have a subvertical ESE-striking axial plane with subvertically plunging axes on steep F1 limbs and subhorizontal fold axes in shallow F1 limbs. F2 folds have a pervasive axial planar cleavage that is recognized regionally. The steeply dipping Osiris and Nadaleen faults appear to cut all folds. Mineralization is spatially associated with later NW-striking faults in the Conrad zone. Much of the folding within the mineralized Conrad limestone is synsedimentary and its geometry reflects its emplacement as an olistostrome.

The AurMac property, located 35 km north of Mayo in central Yukon, includes two metasedimentary rock-hosted gold deposits: the 6158 koz Au Powerline deposit and the 845 koz Au Airstrip deposit. Mineralization at the Powerline and Airstrip deposits is characterized by gold in sheeted quartz veins and mineralized skarn horizons, respectively. The AurMac deposits straddle the Robert Service thrust fault whereby the Powerline deposit is hosted in the Late Proterozoic to Cambrian Hyland Group hanging wall, and the Airstrip deposit is hosted in the Mississippian Sourdough Hill Member of the Keno Hill Quartzite footwall. Host rocks comprise siliciclastic metasedimentary rocks, variably calc-silicate–altered calcareous metasedimentary rocks and magmatic rocks. Magmatic rocks in the Powerline zone consist of foliated mafic horizons that are geochemically similar to Cambro-Ordovician magmatic rocks found in Hyland Group metasedimentary rocks in the McQuesten, Mayo, Clark Lakes and Hart River map areas. In the Airstrip zone, magmatic rocks include a steeply south-dipping, unfoliated, aplite dike. Evidence for intrusion-related gold mineralization at AurMac includes sheeted vein and skarn mineralization similar to the intrusionhosted, intrusion-related gold deposits at Dublin Gulch, as well as the presence of metamorphic porphyroblast assemblages that suggest contact metamorphism. These findings suggest potential for further discovery of mineralized intrusion-hosted zones on the AurMac property and sedimenthosted, intrusion-related gold deposits elsewhere in the region.

Kalzas, in central Yukon, is a porphyry-style stockwork and sheeted-vein wolframite deposit. Alteration includes a potassic core, a quartz-tourmaline-sericite zone and an outer quartz-sericite-pyrite zone, the latter in excess of 2 km in diameter. Wolframite is confined to the inner two zones, in an oval area 1500 m by 800 m. The wolframite is disseminated within the quartz-tourmaline stockwork and also occurs as coarse crystals in sheeted veins. Mineralization occurs within Neoproterozoic to Early Cambrian Hyland Group quartzites and phyllites, which are likely intruded at depth by a pluton, possibly of the Cretaceous Tombstone Suite. From 1981 to 1984, Union Carbide carried out mapping, soil and rock geochemistry, an airborne magnetometer survey, road building, trenching and drilling of two diamond drill holes. Results from Copper Ridge's 2001 sample program range from 0.3% WO3 to 0.5% WO3 over widths up to 70 m. They demonstrate the potential to define a signifi cant resource of surface-mineable tungsten mineralization at a grade of 0.4% WO3 or better. Drilling is required to confirm grade continuity at depth and along strike.

The link between organic matter and gold in sediment-hosted Carlin-type deposits is controversial. This study aims to tackle this potential link by documenting the occurrence of organic matter in a single borehole from a Carlin-type gold deposit in Yukon and byconsidering, in a preliminary way, the spatial and/or temporal relationship between organic matter and gold mineralization. The sedimentary succession hosting the Conrad deposit was relatively rich in organic matter, possibly related to Archea. Despite the high maturation of samples, the totalorganic carbon (TOC) content of the limestone unit averages 1.31 wt. % (maximum = 3.18 wt. %). Petrographic observations indicate that pore and fracture filling pyrobitumen is the dominant organic matter maceral in the studied samples. This type of pyrobitumen was matured after its emplacement,indicating that hydrocarbon fluids cannot have served as an agent for gold transport. Pyrobitumen disseminated in the rock or associated with stylolites are also documented. The correlation between TOC and Tl (the best proxy for Au) for selected samples and the high As content of pyrobitumen fillingpores may suggest a link between organic matter content and gold deposition, but this was not demonstrated by LA-ICP-MS micro-scale mapping. This study also highlights the challenges of establishing a direct spatial relationship between 'invisible' gold and very small (< 10 µm) pyrobitumenparticles.

This report releases whole-rock geochemical assay results of 102 samples collected by the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) and Yukon Geological Survey (YGS) from four Carlin-type gold zones (Conrad, Sunrise, Osiris and Anubis) in the Nadaleen Trend, Yukon.

Despite many years of exploration and relatively limited success, the Rusty Springs prospect retains considerable potential for a large-tonnage deposit. The property lies within the east-vergent Taiga-Nahoni fold belt, occurring in the core of a structural culmination exposing host dolostones of the Lower and Middle Devonian Ogilvie Formation. Mineralization occurs in stratabound and discordant zones along the contact with the overlying Devono-Mississippian unnamed shale. Various deposit models, ranging from Mississippi Valley-type to epithermal vein-type have been employed. Poor exposure and relatively deep weathering, resulting from the lack of Pleistocene glaciation, account for the lack of consensus with regard to genesis. Evidence points to the potential for a high-temperature, carbonate-hosted massive sulphide deposit (manto-chimney complex). The great extent of mineralized and altered rocks, together with their stratabound nature, significant thickness, local high grades, and potential for supergene enrichment, suggest that Rusty Springs remains an attractive drill-oriented exploration target.

The Len porphyry gold prospect is located 47 km north of Mayo, Yukon, in the Tombstone Suite intrusive belt. The area was explored as a Keno Hill-style silver prospect in the 1960s and 1970s. An arsenic-in-soil anomaly first identified in 1980 was followed up by soil geochemistry and excavator trenching in 1996. Multiple sheeted quartz-sulphide veins hosted in a previously unmapped granodiorite stock were discovered during the trenching program. A six-hole program of diamond drilling in 1997 encountered grades ranging up to 2.22 g/t gold across 18.6 m, and showed that gold mineralization is dominantly within, but not restricted to, the intrusive stock.