The Assean Gold Property lies within the northeastern extension of the Thompson Nickel Belt, a zone marking the collisional margin of two ancient continents, the Early Proterozoic Churchill Province to the northwest against the older Archean Superior Province to the southeast during the Trans-Hudson orogeny. The contact between the two provinces is known as the Superior Boundary Zone, a zone of extreme, multi-stage deformation with a major bounding fault(s) and characterized by high-grade metamorphism, all key characteristics associated with major gold camps around the world.
The local geology of the Assean Gold Property is poorly understood due to extensive cover of lacustrine clay, silt, sand and basal till up to 20 m in thickness. Based on limited outcrop and core from diamond drilling, the area is underlain by gneiss and schist of varied derivation with an Archean (+ 2.7 billion years) to early Proterozoic in age. A sequence of metamorphosed and folded rocks of sedimentary origin intruded by strongly folded gabbroic dykes characterizes the geology of the claim group. The succession is comparable to, and possibly correlative with, the Ospwagan Group (2.1 to 1.9 billion years), which hosts several major nickel deposits near Thompson, Manitoba, 125 km to the southwest.
The gold prospects on this property have similar characteristics to shear-hosted deposits found in the prolific gold belts of the Precambrian Shield in eastern and northern Canada. Precambrian shear-hosted gold deposits range in size from a few thousand metric tons to over 50 million metric tons and constitute a significant source of global gold production.
The main gold occurrence on the property is the shear zone-hosted "Hunt" Zone that consists of two stacked parallel lenses of gold-bearing mineralization accompanied by variable amounts of pyrite, arsenopyrite, sphalerite, galena and chalcopyrite. The Hunt Zone is one of six known gold occurrences on the property. The geologic characteristics of the six occurrences are given in Figure 1. Sixty-eight holes have been completed along the Hunt zone trend with highlighted historical results outlined in Table 1 below. Additional exploration is warranted on all mineralized occurrences, and new targets generated from the compilation.
Figure 1: VMS Mining Claims and Gold Occurrences.
|
Table 1: Geologic characteristics of Assean gold occurrences.
|
|
Zone
|
|
Comments
|
|
Hunt
|
|
Shear hosted, parallel to the penetrative 060° foliation developed in isoclinally folded host rocks and dips steeply south. The surrounding host rocks are commonly silicified and altered to tremolite-actinolite, calcite and minor iron carbonates, biotite and chlorite and quartz veins with visible gold and disseminated galena, pyrrhotite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite and local arsenopyrite.
|
|
BIF
|
|
Banded iron formation comprises silicate, oxide and sulphide facies. Sulphide mineralization of (1-70%) by volume in magnetite-chert banded iron formation. Sulphides form disseminations, stringers, net textures and massive bands. Alteration minerals comprise of calcite, iron-magnesium carbonates, tremolite-actinolite and chlorite.
|
|
Blowfish Lake
|
|
Altered gabbro with quartz veins containing visible gold and scheelite.
|
|
Dunbrack
|
|
Silicate facies iron formation with quartz veins and disseminated pyrite and pyrrhotite mineralization. The zone strikes 045° and dips steeply south with visible gold associated with galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, pyrite and minor pyrrhotite.
|
|
Galena Island
|
|
This showing is about 800 metres SW of Dunbrack and locally contains visible gold in quartz veins associated with galena and other sulphides in a gneissic host rock.
|
|
Parker Point
|
|
The occurrence consists of disseminated chalcopyrite, galena, bornite and pyrite in a grey cherty quartz in biotite gneiss / schist host rock.
|