| Issue ID: | GBCR2006-01-27 |
| Title: | Update on the Mineral Deposit Potential of the Nootka Sound Region (NTS 92E), West Coast of Vancouver Island, B.C. |
| Author(s): | Marshall, D., Lesiczka, M., Xue, G., Close, S. |
| Purpose: | The objectives of this study are to promote exploration in the area through improved geological mapping, lithogeochemistry, metallogeny and mineral-deposit studies. |
| Series Name: | Geoscience BC Report |
| Publication Year: | 2006 |
| Other Citation Details: | Geoscience BC Report 2006-1 |
| Larger Work Citation: | in Geological Fieldwork 2005, Geoscience BC Report 2006-01, pages 323 to 330 |
| NTS Map Sheet(s): | 092E |
| Place Keyword(s): | British Columbia, Nootka Sound |
| Lat/Long (NSWE): | 49.9, 49.3, -126.6, -126 |
| Theme Keyword(s): | Geoscience BC Fieldwork, ore deposits, metamorphism, Sicker, Westcoast Crystalline Complex |
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Abstract:
| The Nootka Sound region is host to a few small ore deposits. These are skarns (Ford and Silverado) and intrusion-related Au mineralization, such as the Privateer in the Zeballos camp. The area was mapped in the 1980s by Muller et al. (1981), a large portion being categorized as a metamorphic complex representative of mid-crustal level rocks. This oversimplification and misidentification of metamorphic grade in the area, combined with difficult access and terrain, have made exploration difficult. Preliminary work in the Nootka Sound region indicated that the rocks in the area were locally contact metamorphosed by the Jurassic Island and Tertiary Mount Washington intrusive suites, but had not been subjected to high-grade regional metamorphism and thus could be correlated with the rock units in the southern parts of Vancouver Island (cf. Massey, 1991; Massey, 1995; Yorath et al., 1999; DeBari et al., 1999;). Potential correlations of these rocks with the Sicker Group also makes these rocks prospective for volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) – type mineralization, such as at Myra Falls (Barrett and Sherlock, 1996). The primary goals of this study are to promote exploration in the area through improved geological mapping, lithogeochemistry, metallogeny and mineral-deposit studies. This paper summarizes this summer’s mapping and some preliminary lithogeochemistry, which are part of a Geoscience BC project focused on improving the bedrock mapping in the Nootka Sound area. Basic prospecting and sampling were undertaken during the mapping. Work continues on completion of a lithogeochemistry study of the various rock types and on a revised metallogenic interpretation of the area, based on new mapping, geochemistry and geochronology. |
