Ontario Mineral Inventory

Ontario Geological Survey
Permanent Link to this Record: MDI42E16NE00003

Record: MDI42E16NE00003

General

Commodities

Primary Commodities: Copper

Secondary Commodities: Zinc

Location

Township or Area: O'Meara

Latitude: 49° 56' 15.79"    Longitude: -86° 15' 3.08"

UTM Zone: 16    Easting: 553758   Northing: 5531975    UTM Datum: NAD83

Resident Geologist District: Thunder Bay North

NTS Grid: 42E16NE

Point Location Description: Map in AFRI 42E16NE0007

Location Method: Conversion from MDI

Exploration History

1920s: prospector Powell conducted trenching and sampling. 1954: The Mining Corporation of Canada conducted trenching, geological mapping, and an SP geophysical survey. 1961: Prospectors working for Kimberly-Clark Pulp and Paper Company located carbonatite rocks on the SW shore of Chipman Lake. 1966: Consolidated Morrison Explorations Ltd. conducted airborne EM surveys. 1990: G. Royer staked the claim. 1991: Royer conducted a soil geochemical survey and VLF-EM and magnetometer surveys, geological mapping and sampling. 1992: Royer conducted prospecting. 1993: Royer drilled 6 DDH totalling 63 m and conducted a radiometric survey.

Assessment Work on File

Geology

Province: Superior

Subprovince: Wabigoon

Geological Age: Archean  

Lithology

Lithology Comments

Oct 10, 2017 (Therese Pettigrew) - Kyanite-sillimanite-cordierite schist is a lithology noted only adjacent to the Chipman copper occurrence. It is located at the contact between the monzonite and metavolcanics. This rock has the aspect of a hornfels with kyanite, sillimanite, and cordierite collectively forming about 50% of the rock. They are embedded in a black and very fine-grained groundmass which probably contains much biotite. Despite being near a massive sulphide deposit, this rock appears almost totally devoid of any sulphides (AFRI 42E16NE0012).

Mineralization

Mineralization Comments

Oct 10, 2017 (Therese Pettigrew) - Carbonatite dikes are up to 15 feet in width and contain magnetite, mica, apatite, actinolite and locally pyrochlore. To the east of this point near the eastern shore of Chipman Lake two parallel sulphide zones 170 feet apart are present in basalt near the margin of the syenite intrusion. The northern zone lies in diorite along the contact with volcanics to the south. It strikes east-west and consists of massive to disseminated sulphides (pyrite, pyrrhotite and minor chalcopyrite) over widths up to and possibly exceeding 25 feet. No nickel, gold or silver were present in the samples analyzed. Assays for copper and sample lengths are as follows: 0.36 percent for 12 feet, 0.34 percent for 3 feet, and 0.34 percent for 3 feet. The southern zone lies in volcanics south of a second sill-like body of diorite. It is exposed at the western end in two trenches which indicate a strike length of 70 feet and a combined width of massive and disseminated sulphides of 8 feet. Two other trenches give a possible strike length of 290 feet. Copper assays and sample lengths shown on the geological plan are as follows: 0.23 percent for 2.8 feet, 0.26 percent for 2 feet, and 0.21 percent for 3 feet (Ferguson, 1971 and Thomson et al., 1957). The 1993 drill program found that massive sulphides were not present beyond 3 m drill depth. Between depths of 3-6 m, the sulphides occur general as thick irregular stringers or irregular blebs and compose on average 35% of the rock. Beyond 10 m depth, sulphides are very rare, often composing less than 1% of the core. The four shallow holes can all be described together as they have a similar lithology of strongly brecciated, spongy, rusty rock hosting massive to semi-massive iron sulphides. Where discernable, the country rock is generally a fine-grained strongly sheared amphibolite, though locally it is coarse grained with blue-green crystals up to 1 cm. Chalcopyrite was only noted as small blebs less than 3 mm, constituting only 1% of the sulphides. The best copper assay from the 1993 drill program returned a value of 0.4% Cu. A high zinc value of 0.24% was recorded from a spot hundreds of metres east of the workings adjacent to Ogahalla Road and though virtually no sphalerite was noted in the rocks, zinc was anomalous in the soils throughout the claim block. Results of the drill program returned assays of less than 0.1% nickel and little to no zinc. Gold values were less than 25 ppb (AFRI 42E16NE0012).

Mineral Record Details

References

Map - Geological series, Precambrian geology, Chipman Lake area, Thunder Bay and Cochrane districts

Publication Number: P1068 Scale: 1:15,840    Date: 1997

Author: Sage R.P., Bathe D., Wright W., Chamois P., Shewbridge K.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

MonoMap - Columbium (niobium) deposits of Ontario

Publication Number: MDC014 Scale:     Date: 1971

Author: Ferguson S.A.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines and Northern Affairs

Location:

Mono - Copper, nickel, lead and zinc deposits of Ontario

Publication Number: MDC012 Scale:     Date: 1969

Author: Shklanka R.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

Mono - Copper, nickel, lead and zinc deposits in Ontario (revised to February, 1957)

Publication Number: MDC002 Scale:     Date: 1957

Author: Thomson J.E., Ferguson S.A., Johnston W.G.Q., Pye E.G., Savage W.S., Thomson R.

Publisher Name: Ontario Dept. of Mines

Location:

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