Ontario Mineral Inventory

Ontario Geological Survey
Permanent Link to this Record: MDI000000002547

Record: MDI000000002547

General

Commodities

Primary Commodities: Lithium

Location

Township or Area: Gathering Lake Area

Latitude: 49° 29' 6.26"    Longitude: -87° 28' 8.68"

UTM Zone: 16    Easting: 466025   Northing: 5481487    UTM Datum: NAD83

Resident Geologist District: Thunder Bay North

NTS Grid: 42E06NW

Point Location Description: Sample 294411 from Assessment report 20000017160

Location Method: Data Compilation

Access Description: The Gathering Lake project can be accessed by dirt roads off Highway 11 north of the town of Nipigon. The claims are accessed by driving 40 km north of the town of Nipigon on Highway 11, then driving approximately 59 km northeast on the Gorge Creek Road (Camp 75 Rd.) and Camp 51 road. An alternative route can also utilized from Highway 11 between Beardmore and Geraldton, ON along the Camp 51/Sturgeon River Road towards Gathering Lake for approximately 28km southwest.

Exploration History

1957: Derson Mines carried out trenching and drilled 1 DDH totaling 16.1 m. 2018: K. Fenwick and A. Pleson carried out prospecting and sampling. 2022: A. Pleson carried out channel sampling and a VLF-EM survey. 2023: Balkan Mining and Minerals Ltd optioned the property and carried out soil sampling.

Assessment Work on File

Geology

Province: Superior

Subprovince: Quetico

Terrane: Quetico Basin

Geological Age: Neoarchean  

Geology Comments

Oct 07, 2021 (Therese Pettigrew) - Geologically, the area is located within the Quetico Subprovince of the Superior Province. The Quetico Subprovince is composed of predominantly metasediments consisting of wacke, iron formation, conglomerate, and siltstone, which deposited between 2.70 and 2.69 Ga. The Quetico Subprovince was subjected to four deformational events between approximately 2700 and 2660 million years. Metamorphism, migmatite formation and granite intrusion occurred between 2.67 and 2.65 Ga (Williams, 1991). The igneous rocks in the Quetico Subprovince include abundant felsic and intermediate intrusions, metamorphosed rare mafic and felsic extrusive rocks and an uncommon suite of gabbroic and ultramafic rocks. The earlier felsic intrusions occurred 5 to 10 million years after the accumulation of sediments and are interpreted to be I-type intrusions. The later felsic intrusions occurred 20 million years after the sedimentation and are designated as S-type. The pegmatites in the Quetico Subprovince which contain lithium and rare metals (beryllium, tantalum, niobium and tin) are hosted by metasediments and by their parent granite. The pegmatite dykes, sills and lenses can be subdivided into rare-element pegmatites and granitic pegmatites. The rare-element pegmatites are of economic significance and they contain microcline or perthite, albite, quartz, muscovite and spodumene and minor amounts of beryl, columbite-tantalite and cassiterite. The granitic pegmatites are like the irregular pegmatites described above except that they contain more abundant plagioclase. Some of the pegmatites are parallel to the foliation or bedding of the metasediments, whereas others occur in joints in either the metasediments or granite. Contacts are usually sharp and, except where dykes cut granitic rocks, often found to be marked by a thin border zone of aplite or granitoid composition. A few pegmatites are internally zoned with mica-rich or tourmaline-rich rock along or close to the walls and quartz cores (Assessment report 20000017160).

Lithology

Lithology Comments

Oct 07, 2021 (Therese Pettigrew) - The property is dominated by granite related to the Glacier Lake Batholith. Outcrop is limited. Overall, the granite is mainly coarse-grained consisting of quartz, feldspar, and muscovite. The metasediments observed are typically meta-sandstone described as a muscovite schist with observed bedding and various stages of metamorphism are present, including migmatization imparting a gneissic texture. The pegmatite dykes observed at the Koshman occurrence are simple, non-zoned, albite-type spodumene pegmatites with trace amounts of oxides and apatite.

Mineralization

Mineralization Comments

Oct 07, 2021 (Therese Pettigrew) - Based on the mapping completed by MacVeigh 1957 of the Koshman, the area to the immediate northwest of the discovered dyke is most likely a flat lying pegmatite dyke or sill. This area sampled up to 2.37% Li2O. The dyke or sill area of the Koshman holds the greatest economic potential so far observed on the property. Further exploration of the sill/dyke, mapped over a 175 m x 110 m area, has the potential to produce an economic tonnage. A dyke in the far northwest of the Koshman discovered in 1957 was not located. From MacVeigh’s work in 1957, the geological map indicates that the host coarse-grained pegmatite of these dykes also contains disseminated spodumene. The best assays from the 2022 channel sampling program returned 3.75% Li2O over 1.8 m (Assessment report 20000020927).

Assay Samples

Mineral Record Details

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Ministry Contact Information

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