Ontario Mineral Inventory

Ontario Geological Survey
Permanent Link to this Record: MDI53C10SW00008

Record: MDI53C10SW00008

General

Commodities

Primary Commodities: Zinc, Lead

Secondary Commodities: Silver, Gold

Location

Township or Area: Buckett Lake Area

Latitude: 52° 31' 58.2"    Longitude: -92° 54' 53.6"

UTM Zone: 15    Easting: 505773.24   Northing: 5820307.42    UTM Datum: NAD83

Resident Geologist District: Red Lake

NTS Grid: 53C10SW

Point Location Description: Precise

Location Method: Data Compilation

Exploration History

1938: D. Adams of Newmont Mining Corp. discovered the showing and did minor prospecting. 1946: MacDonell, Young and Associates did trenching. 1948: Lake Bed Syndicated drilled 4 x-ray DDH. 1964: Silver Spirit Mines Ltd. completed an IP and resistivity survey. 1985-86: Geophysical surveys and diamond drilling by Rockspan Resources.

Assessment Work on File

Geology

Province: Superior

Subprovince: Sachigo

Terrane: North Caribou

Belt: North Spirit Lake

Geological Age: Archean  

Geology Comments

Jun 05, 2007 (Mark Puumala) - The most notable structural feature in the northern portion of the North Spirit Lake Greenstone Belt is the North Spirit Lake Fault. This is an arcuate structure whose strike direction changes from northeast at the eastern end of North Spirit Lake to approximately east-west at the western end of the belt, where it merges with the northwest-striking Bear Head Fault Zone. The Bear Head Fault is a northwest-striking, regional-scale, dextral strike-slip structure that extends for approximately 515 km from Lake Winnipeg in the northwest to the north boundary of the Meen-Dempster Greenstone Belt in the southeast (Osmani and Stott 1988). Wood (1977) indicates that the North Spirit Lake Fault also shows evidence of dextral offset (in addition to an apparent south-side down movement). Mapping by Wood (1977) also indicates the presence of related northeast and east-west-striking faults at the eastern end of North Spirit Lake. Foliation and stratigraphy in the rocks of the North Spirit Assemblage generally strike northeast with near-vertical dip at the west end of the assemblage. However, in the eastern and northern portions of the assemblage, the strike direction changes to a general north-south orientation.

Lithology

Lithology Comments

Jun 05, 2007 (Mark Puumala) - The supracrustal rocks in the area to the north of North Spirit Lake comprise the 3023 Ma North Spirit Assemblage, which represents the oldest known supracrustal rock sequence in the Superior Province (Thurston et al. 1991). The North Spirit Assemblage is separated from the rest of the rocks of the North Spirit Lake Greenstone Belt by the approximately east-west-striking North Spirit Lake Fault. The rocks of the North Spirit Assemblage include mafic metavolcanics (including massive and pillowed flows), felsic metavolcanics (flows and pyroclastics) and oxide facies iron formation (Thurston et al. 1991). Mapping by Wood (1977) indicates that the area is dominated by intercalated mafic and felsic metavolcanic units. Toward the eastern end of the belt, significant units of ultramafic rock (flows or intrusives) and iron formation occur within this sequence. Wood (1977) reports the presence of only minor occurrences of clastic interflow metasedimentary rocks in this area. The rocks of the North Spirit Assemblage are bounded to the north and east by granitoid batholiths. The granitoid rocks to the north are foliated tonalites of the 2925 Ma Hawley Batholith (Stone 1998), while the rocks to the east of the belt have been mapped by Stone (1998) as part of a body of hornblende tonalite to granite. South of the North Spirit Lake Fault, the North Spirit Assemblage rocks are in contact with younger rocks of the Disrupted, Nemakwis, Makataiamik, Hewitt and Bijou Point Complex assemblages. Toward the northwest, parallel to the Bear Head Fault Zone, Stone (1998) has mapped a relatively thin sequence of supracrustal rocks that extends to the Favourable Lake Greenstone Belt. Immediately northwest of North Spirit Lake, the supracrustal rocks have largely been mapped as being metasediments. These metasedimentary rocks are flanked by a number of peraluminous granitic intrusions, one of which contains the Pakeagama Lake rare-element pegmatite (Breaks et al. 1999).

Mineralization

Mineralization Comments

Nov 20, 2014 (Mark Puumala) - Wood (1977) indicates that this occurrence is located at a sheared contact between metavolcanic rocks to the south and granitic rocks to the north. The contact strikes approximately 070. Wood (1977) describes the mineralization as consisting of massive sphalerite and galena with associated tourmaline, while a description provided in Shklanka (1969) indicates mineralization consisting of galena, sphalerite, native silver, ruby silver and pyrite. A grab sample collected by Wood (1977) reportedly assayed 16.5% Zn, 4.52% Pb, 6.42 oz/ton Ag and 0.35 oz/ton Au. Sampling carried out by Silver Spirit Mines in 1964 is reported by Wood (1977) to have produced grab sample assays of up to 14 oz/ton Ag, 8.4% Pb, 6.32% Zn and 0.02 oz/ton Au.

Mar 02, 2018 (Therese Pettigrew) - Mineralization occurs in lenses in sericite schist on the shoreline and is only exposed during low water. Galena, sphalerite, native silver, and ruby silver are associated with pyrite as disseminations in sericite schist or in massive form associated with quartz vein material. The original showing was about 22.9 m long and up to 3.7 m wide, but trenching has shown it to be about 4.6 m by 1.2 m about a metre below the original surface. Minor sphalerite has been traced intermittently along the nearby granite contact for over 2 miles to the west (Shklanka, 1969).

Mineral Record Details

References

Map - North Spirit Lake, Kenora District

Publication Number: M2362 Scale: 1:31,680    Date: 1977

Author: Wood J.

Publisher Name: Ontario Division of Mines

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:

MonoMap - Geology of North Spirit Lake area, District of Kenora (Patricia Portion)

Publication Number: R150 Scale:     Date: 1977

Author: Wood J.

Publisher Name: Ontario Division of Mines

Location:

Article - Northwestern Superior province: review and terrane analysis

Publication Number: SV04-01.005 Scale:     Date: 1997

Author: Thurston P.C., Osmani I.A., Stone D.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Article - Regional-scale shear zones in Sachigo Subprovince and their economic significance

Publication Number: MP141.006 Scale:     Date: 1997

Author: Osmani I.A., Stott G.M.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

MonoMap - Precambrian Geology of the Berens River Area, Northwestern Ontario

Publication Number: OFR5963 Scale:     Date: 1998

Author: Stone D.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

Compend - Summary of Field Work and Other Activities, 1999

Publication Number: OFR6000 Scale:     Date: 1999

Author: Ayer J.A., Baker C.L., Kelly R.I., Stott G.M., Thurston P.C.

Publisher Name: Ontario Geological Survey

Location:

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