Ontario Mineral Inventory

Ontario Geological Survey
Permanent Link to this Record: MDI52O11SW00031

Record: MDI52O11SW00031

General

Commodities

Primary Commodities: Copper, Nickel, Platinum Metals

Secondary Commodities: Cobalt

Location

Township or Area: McVicar Lake Area

Latitude: 51° 33' 39.08"    Longitude: -91° 20' 49.44"

UTM Zone: 15    Easting: 614578.07   Northing: 5713491.79    UTM Datum: NAD83

Resident Geologist District: Thunder Bay North

NTS Grid: 52O11SW

Point Location Description: General

Location Method: Conversion from MDI

Exploration History

1959-1961: Kenlew Mines Ltd conducted prospecting, geological mapping, stripping, trenching and diamond drilling. 1968-1971: New Jersey Zinc Exploration Company (Canada) Limited conducted geological mapping, geophysics, trenching, and drilled 5 DDH totalling 213 m. 1975: Umex Corp. Ltd. drilled 2 DDH totalling 323.4 m. 1986: BHP-Utah Mines Ltd. conducted mapping and sampling.

Assessment Work on File

Geology

Province: Superior

Subprovince: Uchi

Terrane: North Caribou

Domain: Uchi

Belt: Lang Lake

Geological Age: Neoarchean  

Geology Comments

Mar 29, 2007 (Mark Puumala) - The area geology is described in MDI52O11SW00007.

Lithology

Mineralization

Mineralization Comments

Sep 26, 2019 (Mark Puumala) - The McVicar Lake East Cu-Ni-PGE occurrence is located within the approximately east-west striking McVicar Lake gabbro intrusion, near the northern contact with mafic metavolcanics. Allen (1986) indicates that mineralization at this location occurs within a medium to coarse-grained gabbro where it has been intensely silicified and appears to become more fine-grained. The main showing is located at a highly fractured and sheared volcanic-intrusive contact (likely coincident with a fault) that strikes approximately northwest and dips steeply to the southeast (Bartlett 1971). Based on the results of diamond drilling, Bartlett (1971) indicates that the intrusion consists of two phases described as diorite and gabbro. Each of these phases is reported to be mineralized with pyrite, chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite in fractures and narrow veinlets. A 1.5 m wide magnetite-rich band was reported to occur in the gabbro. The mafic metavolcanics are described by Bartlett (1971) as fine-grained and chloritic, and commonly containing quartz-carbonate veining. Volcanic xenoliths containing significant copper-nickel mineralization were also reported in the gabbro/diorite by Bartlett (1971). According to Allen (1986), sulphide mineral concentrations in the area of the surface occurrence range from 20 to 90%. Pyrrhotite is the dominant mineral, with occasional chalcopyrite and pyrite. Pentlandite may also be present based on the high reported nickel assays (Allen 1986). Significant assays reported from this occurrence include grab sample values of up to 30,400 ppm Cu, 9300 ppm Ni and 760 ppb PGE (Allen 1986) and diamond drilling values of up to 0.96% Cu over 1 m and 0.26% Ni over 1.5 m Bartlett (1971; Assessment report 52O11SW0061).

Sep 26, 2019 (Therese Pettigrew) - Samples collected by OGS staff returned assays of 0.03-2.12% Cu, trace to 1.48% Ni, trace to 0.12% Co, trace to 0.03 oz/t Pd (1.03 g/t Pd), trace to 0.01 oz/t Au (0.34 g/t Au), and trace to 0.31 oz/t Ag (10.63 g/t Ag) (Sage and Breaks, 1982).

Mineral Record Details

References

MonoMap - Geology of the Cat Lake-Pickle Lake area, districts of Kenora and Thunder Bay

Publication Number: R207 Scale:     Date: 1982

Author: Sage R.P., Breaks F.W.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

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