Ontario Mineral Inventory

Ontario Geological Survey
Permanent Link to this Record: MDI000000000635

Record: MDI000000000635

General

Commodities

Primary Commodities: Diamond, Kimberlite

Location

Township or Area: Sharpe

Latitude: 47° 55' 28.02"    Longitude: -80° 8' 59.88"

UTM Zone: 17    Easting: 563501   Northing: 5308253    UTM Datum: NAD83

Resident Geologist District: Kirkland Lake

NTS Grid: 41P16NE

Point Location Description: kimberlite pipe

Location Method: Other Literature

Access Description: Located about 26 km southwest of Kirkland Lake and 23 km northwest of Englehart. The paved Hough Lake Road heads west from Hwy 11 to within 3.5 km of the pipe. Dirt roads and tracks extend from the Hough Lake Road to the pipe.

Exploration History

2004-2005: Tres-Or Resources completed an airborne survey and follow-up till sampling. 2005: Tres-Or and Arctic Star diamond drilling (5 holes 1153 m) identified diamonds. 1 macro and 30 micro diamonds recovered from 588.5 kg. 2006-2007: Tres-Or and Arctic Star diamond drilling (13 holes 3135 m) 2008: Large diameter rotary drilling recovered a mini-bulk sample of 50 t from a 260.5 m hole. The samples were collected from between 81.1 and 260.5 m. No diamonds recovered grater than 0.8 mm. 2005-2009: Caustic fusion analysis to microdiamond results were filed in a report (2009).

Assessment Work on File

Geology

Province: Superior

Subprovince: Abitibi

Terrane: Wawa-Abitibi

Belt: Abitibi

Geological Age: Archean  

Geology Comments

Mar 06, 2009 (D Guidon) - from assessment file 2.36343 The Superior Craton is the largest Archean continental block on earth. Such cratons host most of the world's bedrock diamond mines, and is therefore considered a valid exploration target for diamondiferous kimberlites (Brown et al, 2003). The Lapointe kimberlite is located within the central portions of the large Round Lake Batholith. The Batholith is approximately 47km east-west and 38km north-south diameter and straddles the Lake Temiskaming and Montreal River faults. These two faults are considered key factors in the emplacement of kimberlites in the Temiskaming area. It is only recently, in 2004, that Contact Diamonds discovered two kimberlite bodies west of the Montreal River Fault in Klock and Van Nostrand townships. This led to a great deal of staking, and ensuing exploration, west of the Montreal River Fault. The results of exploring this new target area have not yet been realized and much work is still ongoing. The Kirkland Lake area is underlain by several ages of rocks and hosts a complicated, although economically favourable, structural history. The oldest rocks consist of the Archean greenstone of the Abitibi sub province of predominantly granitoid-greenstone assemblages. These metavolcanics and metasedimentary packages are located along the eastern margins of the Round Lake Batholith. To the west are predominantly rocks of the upper Huronian Supergroup - Proterozoic in age. This sedimentary group dominates the Cobalt Embayment and consists primarily of the conglomerates, argillites and arkoses of the Coleman and Firstbrook Members of the Gowganda Formation with Lorrain Formation quartz arenites overlying them. Intruding these is the Nipissing gabbro - a massive, undulating sill throughout the embayment, with numerous feeder dykes. Paleozoic rocks of Silurian and Ordovician age have been preserved due to block faulting along the Lake Timiskaming fault zone - interpreted as a graben in a failed rift system. It is this deep-seated structure, which extends from the Ottawa River system through to the James Bay Lowlands, that is considered to be fundamental to the emplacement of the known kimberiite clusters along its length. Lastly, kimberiite lithologies have been discovered northwest of Kirkland Lake and now to the southwest as well as in the Cobalt-New Liskeard area and, more recently, west of the Montreal River Fault. Faults comprising the lake Temiskaming Structural Zone (Montreal River, Cross Lake, Lake Timiskaming, Blanche River) that extends from the Ottawa River in a northwesterly trend towards the James Bay Lowlands. Several of these faults within this system pass through the Round Lake Batholith.

Lithology

Mineralization

Mineralization Comments

Dec 20, 2012 (D Guidon) - Caustic fusion analysis of drill core was conducted by 3 laboratories. 443 diamonds were returned from 3687 kg of undiluted kimberlite. The largest diamond recovered was a clear white gemstone weighing 0.0665 carats and it remained on a +1.7 mm mesh. More than 95% of the recovered diamonds are from the central-western portion of the pipe.

Mineral Record Details

References

Data - Geological Compilation of the Abitibi Greenstone Belt

Publication Number: MRD143 Date: 2004

Author: Ayer J.A., Trowell N.F., Josey S.D.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

File - Resident Geologist file KL-5649

Publication Number: Date:

Author:

Publisher Name:

Location: Kirkland Lake RGP office

Map - Geological Compilation of the Central Abitibi Greenstone Belt: Kapuskasing Structural Zone to the Quebec Border

Publication Number: P3565 Scale: 1:250,000    Date: 2005

Author: Ayer J.A., Berger B.R., Hall L.A.F., Houlé M.G., Johns G.W., Josey S.D., Madon Z.B., Rainsford D.R.B., Trowell N.F., Vaillancourt C.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

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For detailed information regarding this mineral record please contact the Kirkland Lake Resident Geologist District Office