Newsletter #6, November 2002
The McGill University Student Chapter of the SEG had a another great year and continued to thrive during 2001-2002. Twenty-one students and two staff were registered as members, and generous corporate donations enabled the Chapter to subsidize activities related to economic geology. New officers elected for the 2002-2003 year are: Christina Ponte (President), David Dolejs (Vice-President), Joy Hartzler (Secretary), and Katherine Ault (Treasurer).
Activities attended by Chapter members during the last session include a trip to Val d’Or to visit the Louvicourt VMS deposit, a 4 day trip to Timmins-Kirkland Lake to see the giant Kidd Creek VMS and Holloway mesothermal gold deposits, and a trip to Quebec City to attend the lecture by Dr. J. Richard Kyle, SEG Thayer Lindsley visiting lecturer 2001-2002, hosted by the University of Laval. In March, the Chapter also subsidized members to attend the PDAC meeting in Toronto. Two speakers were hosted by the McGill Chapter during the academic year, Dr. Bruce Taylor of the GSC in Ottawa gave a talk titled “Oxygen Isotope Mapping and Evaluation of Paleo-Hydrothermal Systems Associated with Syn-volcanic Intrusions and VMS Deposits”, and Dr. Antonio Arribas of Placer Dome Exploration Inc., also an SEG Thayer Lindsley Lecturer for 2001-2002, presented “From Volcanoes and Geothermal Systems to World-Class Precious Metals Deposits: Exploration for Epithermal Deposits”.
This year's planned activities include a mini-conference of local SEG Student Chapters, a spring gold-panning expedition, the annual trek to the PDAC in Toronto, and fundraising for a Student Chapter ore deposits trip to Ireland in September of 2003. Several speakers have agreed to give lectures this year, including David Lentz (University of New Brunswick), Gema Olivo (Queen’s University), Mark Hannington (GSC-Ottawa), Katherine Smuk (Falconbridge Exploration) and Benoit Dubé (GSC-Québec).
Ore Deposits and Geology of Ireland
Chapter members are currently planning a trip to Ireland from the 27th of August to the 10th of September, 2003. Aurum Exploration Ltd., a newly incorporated geological consultancy firm, has offered to facilitate tours of several mines and prospects around Ireland. Tours will include the active Navan, Lisheen and Galmoy (Irish-type) and Kings Court (gypsum) mines, as well as historic mines at Charlestown and Avoca (VMS), Silvermines and Tynagh (Irish-type/SEDEX), and a gold prospect at Cregganburn. We also plan on visiting such points of interest as Giant’s Causeway, the Cliffs of Mohr, The Burren, Gold Mines River, and the Newgrange neolithic burial site and Glendalough. Important cultural stops at Old Bushmills Distillery (conveniently located near Giant’s Causeway) and the Guinness Brewery (conveniently located in Dublin!) are also planned.
This trip is open to all SEG members and industry representatives. Industry prices are expected to be $ ~1700 (not including flight). Space is limited, so please contact us if you are interested in taking part in this trip.
Val d'Or Fieldtrip
Several SEG members braved the unpredictable spring weather and drove to Val d'Or to tour the Louvicourt Cu-Zn VMS deposit. Robert Fraser, the mine geologist at Louvicourt was kind enough to take us underground for the morning and give a crash course in the geology and workings of the mine.
Field trip participants at the Louvicourt mine (from left): R. Fraser (mine geologist), F. Duhaime, S. Rahman, A. Zangooi, M. Mlynarczyk, D. Dolejs. Not in picture A. Stewart.
After a quick lunch in the small town of Louvicourt, we resumed our tour of the area and visited Natural Resource Canada's "Canada Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology" (CANMET) experimental mining operation. Martin Côté treated us to an underground tour of their operations. This tour proved a unique one, with the examination of workings from early 20th century gold mining in very tight quarters with few safety considerations, to a large scale, machinery-driven modern operation. The CANMET “mine” is kept operational for the testing of new mining techniques and equipment designed for use in Canadian operations. Some of the many initiatives we discussed with Mr. Côté including laser-guided unmanned vehicles, gas diffusive blasting techniques enabling better ore extraction, and multiple-system safety stations able to monitor concentrations of airborne toxins as well as seismic activity, thereby improving mine safety.
Our CANMET tour ended late in the afternoon and we began the drive back to Montreal. After a full day of trekking through mines and collecting samples all of us were exhausted, but very happy with the great geology and mining operation tours. The trip was a memorable experience for all who participated.
Timmins-Kirkland Lake Fieldtrip
In mid-October five members of the McGill Chapter of the Society of Economic Geologists headed off the Timmins-Kirkland Lake area. The mines of interest for the participants were the Kidd Creek VMS deposit operated by Falconbridge Ltd. outside Timmins and the Holloway mesothermal gold deposit operated by Newmont Canada Ltd., near Matheson.
Our guide for the first mine visit of the field trip was McGill alumni Christopher Wright, mine geologist at Kidd Creek. Chris gave us a presentation on the geology and morphology of this giant deposit, and talked about the geological features we would see underground. Mineralization is hosted by the Kidd Creek Volcanic Complex and underwent multiple deformation events during the Kenoran Orogeny (2.70-2.65 Ga). The Kidd Creek deposit ranks as one of the world’s largest VMS deposits, with over 130 million tonnes of past production plus current reserves, at a grade of 2.35% Cu and 6.5% Zn.
After a long cage ride down, we had the opportunity to visit the 6800’ level of the deposit and view excellent exposures of host lithologies and mineralization, including massive sulfides, chalcopyrite stringer zones, and the footwall rhyolite. We were also treated to a demonstration of remote scoop operation before heading back to the surface.
Field trip participants at the Kidd Creek mine (L-R): J. Clark, , K. Ault, D. Dolejs, C. Wright (mine geologist), M. Heiligmann. Not present in picture S. Archibald.
Chapter members later attended a lecture by K.H. Poulson on the characteristics of lode-gold mineralization in the Abitibi greenstone belt. This lecture was hosted by the Porcupine Discussion Group, and we thank Mort Shannon (Placer Dome) for extending the invitation to attend this meeting. Unfortunately, we were unable to stay for post-talk refreshments, as we had to drive to Kirkland Lake that evening.
The next day, Richard Labine welcomed Chapter members to the Holloway mine and presented a description of the geology of this relatively new mine; production began in 1996. Following Richard’s presentation, we were taken underground by mine geologists Richard Alcock and Valérie Fillion who showed us the various lithologic units encountered in the deposit, from spectacular variolites, hyaloclastites and altered ultramafic rocks, to the overlying sedimentary package. Gold occurs as microscopic inclusions in pyrite and is hosted predominantly by variolitic metavolcanics and hyaloclastites. To date, 2.65 x 106 tonnes have been milled from the Holloway mine at an average grade of 6.45 g/t Au.
Barren albitic dyke cutting variolitic basalt on the 470m level of the Holloway mine.
Sharp contact between highly deformed variolitic basalt (left) and a quartz-carbonate vein. Very little remobilization of the ore has taken place, and late-stage veins are generally barren.
Following the Holloway mine tour, the participants decided to do some ‘geologizing’ since the area is well-known for its superb geology. We all donned bright clothing and braved the moose-hunting locals to view the remarkable spinifex textures and komatiitic flows of Pyke’s Hill in Munro Township. Using a guidebook of local points of interest, the group also checked out several mine dumps in the search for gold mineralization, including the Croesus mine where the Ontario Bureau of Mines in 1916 described the ore as “lumps of pure gold studded the quartz like raisins in a Christmas pudding”. Alas, previous mining had not even left us the spoon to lick clean.
Spinifex textures in komatiitic flows at Pyke Hill.
On the drive back to Montreal, we drove through Cobalt with the intention of visiting mine dumps in the hope of finding some silver-bearing carbonate veins. However, the weather intervened and we instead drove the Heritage Silver Trail as snow fell around us.
The final geological stop on the four day excursion was the abandoned Sherman iron mine, north of Temagami. The mine exploited an Archean banded iron formation (BIF) from 1968 to 1990. The red chert and grey hemate/magnetite was spectacular, and participants collected some beautiful specimens.
Boulder of banded iron formation from the Sherman Mine.
The McGill Chapter of the SEG would like to thank the following corporate members for sponsorship during 2001-2002:
Ashton Mining of Canada
Barrick Gold Corporation
Hudson Bay Exploration and Development Co.
INCO
Interested in becoming a sponsor?
Should your company wish to sponsor our student chapter, then as a thank you, we shall be pleased to advertise your logo on our website and in our future promotional efforts. For more information, please contact us.