Ontario Mineral Inventory

Ontario Geological Survey
Permanent Link to this Record: MDI000000001924

Record: MDI000000001924

General

Commodities

Primary Commodities: Copper, Nickel

Secondary Commodities: Platinum, Palladium

Location

Township or Area: Whitefin Lake Area, Max Lake Area

Latitude: 49° 7' 25.01"    Longitude: -89° 29' 10.01"

UTM Zone: 16    Easting: 318618   Northing: 5444174    UTM Datum: NAD83

Resident Geologist District: Thunder Bay South

NTS Grid: 52H04NE

Point Location Description: GPS point from N. Pettigrew

Location Method: Field Visit with GPS

Access Description: Access to the Legris Lake Property is obtained by travelling approximately 20 km east on Highway 11/17 from Thunder Bay, then 81 km north along provincial highway 527. From there, Fensom Road (gravel) leads to the claim group 16 km to the west. From kilometers 16 and 17 of Fensom Rd, trench and drill sites can be reached via a network of secondary and tertiary roads and access trails

Exploration History

1999: prospector K. Fenwick discovered the Main Showing Zone. 1999-2002: Avalon Ventures Ltd. and Starcore Resources Ltd. optioned the property and conducted IP and magnetic geophysical surveys, geological mapping, geochemical surveys, trenching, sampling, and drilled 28 DDH totaling 4633 m. The Copper Zone was discovered by grid mapping during the 2001 program. 2004: North American Palladium Ltd. (NAP) optioned the property and conducted prospecting and trenching. 2005: NAP drilled 3 DDH totaling 465 m and conducted airborne magnetic and VLF-EM surveys. Option was dropped and property returned to K. Fenwick. 2006: property was optioned by Abitibi Mining Corp. who conducted a ground magnetometer survey. 2010: Lac des Iles Mines Ltd. optioned the property, drilled 7 DDH totaling 3942.6 m, and conducted trenching. 2011: Lac des Iles conducted trenching and drilled 4 DDH totaling 2168 m.

Assessment Work on File

Geology

Province: Superior

Subprovince: Wabigoon

Geological Age: Archean  

Geology Comments

May 20, 2016 (Therese Pettigrew) - The Legris Lake property is situated within the Archean Wabigoon Subprovince of the Superior Structural Province. The Legris Lake Complex is part of a series of PGE-bearing mafic-ultramafic intrusions that form a circular pattern approximately 30 km in diameter commonly referred to as the "Ring of Fire". The series primarily intrude metasediments and metabasalts near the Wabigoon-Quetico Subprovince boundary. The series include the Lac des Iles Complex, Tib Lake, Towle Lake, Wakinoo Lake, Demers Lake, Taman Lake, Buck Lake, and Dog River intrusions. The Legris Lake Complex is intruded by late granodiorite dykes and quartz feldspar pegmatites part of larger granodiorite plutons forming the sanukatoid suite of rocks. The Legris Lake Complex has later been intruded by Proterozoic-age diabase dykes and sills (AFRI 20000000847).

Lithology

Lithology Comments

May 20, 2016 (Therese Pettigrew) - The northeastern border zone comprises most of the northeastern half of the Legris Lake Complex. It consists mostly of mesogabbro but also contains several large (up to 600 by 400 metres) ultramafic bodies, large metasediment xenoliths or roof pendants, and a large zone of Lac des Iles-style clinopyroxenite breccia (Cross Zone). This zone is the least exposed of the five zones, being overlain by thick glaciofluvial deposits (primarily sand and eskers). The most notable feature of this zone is the presence of several large ultramafic bodies. These bodies consist mostly of magnetite-rich clinopyroxenite wehrlite. Clinopyroxene is commonly altered to hornblende but it may be perfectly preserved; olivine is completely serpentinized to black serpentine. These bodies are exposed in the Cross and Copper Zones but are very friable and deeply weathered on surface and display a fair amount of biotite and what appears to have been interstitial olivine (AFRI 52H03NW2008).

Mineralization

Mineralization Comments

May 20, 2016 (Therese Pettigrew) - The Copper Zone is located in the northeastern border zone near the eastern contact of the Complex. The Copper Zone consists of the Cu-Ni-rich, PGE-poor style of mineralization which is thus far unique in the Legris Lake Complex. Outcrop in the vicinity of the Copper Zone is very limited. However, the zone appears to be located in one of the more complex areas in the eastern half of the northeastern border zone. The Copper Zone is exposed in the northwestern end of Trench 12 and consists of mineralized fine- to medium-grained mesogabbro which has intruded unmineralized medium-grained leucogabbro with textures similar to the leucogabbro subtype. The mesogabbro is fairly homogenous with some slightly coarser, more plagioclase-rich zones. The mineralization consists of disseminated chalcopyrite + pyrite + abundant magnetite and grades up to 81 ppb Au, 98 ppb Pt, 39 ppb Pd, 0.47% Cu, and 0.14% Ni over 1.10 meters in channel samples. The mesogabbro is geochemically one of the more primitive rock types in the complex and follows several geochemical trends similar to the leucogabbro of the Main Showing and Poplar Zones. A large unit of olivine-bearing clinopyroxenite was exposed to the southeast of the Copper Zone by Trench 12. Copper mineralization up to 0.09% Cu and 0.01% Ni was intersected in this unit; however PGE contents were generally less than 20 ppb. The unit displays a very complex magnetic signature consisting of several very strong highs and lows and exhibits a very strong chargeability high with an associated resistivity low (AFRI 52H03NW2008).

Mineral Record Details

References

Map - Precambrian Geology of the Southwest Portion of the Nipigon Embayment, Northwestern Ontario

Publication Number: P3580 Scale: 1:100,000    Date: 2006

Author: Hart T.R.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Map - Precambrian Geology, Lac des Iles Area

Publication Number: P3532 Scale: 1:50,000    Date: 2003

Author: Stone D., Fell M., Daley A., Schnieders B.R., Scott J.F., Nielsen P., Wagner D.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Publication - Palladium-Copper-rich Platinum-Group Element Mineralization in Legris Lake Mafic-Ultramafic Complex, Western Superior Province

Publication Number: AppSci Scale:     Date: 2002

Author: Pettigrew, N.T., Hattori, K.H.

Publisher Name: Applied Earth Science, Volume 111, Issue 1, 2002

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For detailed information regarding this mineral record please contact the Thunder Bay South Resident Geologist District Office