Rice Lake Greenstone Belt - Part 1
posted on
Feb 06, 2009 09:08PM
The company is now known as FUSE Cobalt.
I will now begin a brief overview of Wildcat's involvement in Eastern Manitoba, in the Rice lake Greenstone Belt.
Overview (from Wildcat's website)
- the Rice Lake greenstone belt is host to the historic San Antonio gold mine with past production of 1.7 million oz.
- Wildcat has consolidated the largest land holdings (~240 sq. km.) in Rice Lake belt.
- In the past land holdings were small with diverse ownership making exploration difficult.
- Wildcat properties underlain by Red Lake equivalent (Balmer/Ball) stratigraphy (this formation hosts > 25 M oz gold production in Red Lake area)
- Balmer/Ball sequence of rocks are under-explored in Rice Lake area.
- Modern exploration techniques are underutilized in these areas (I.P., geochemical).
- Diamond drilling has been restricted to shallow holes.
- Wanipigow Fault (a major crustal break, presenting significant gold mineralization targets) intersects all Wildcat properties.
- Rice Lake area is potential “Elephant Country” with >200 gold showings and small past producers to be re-evaluated.
- Strategically positioned and with its extensive land holdings, Wildcat is poised for new discoveries.
Geology
The region is part of the great Superior Province, a terrane of large granitic masses separated by greenstone belts, which consist of rocks of volcanic and sedimentary origin. The greenstone belt in this case is the Rice Lake greenstone belt, which hosts numerous deposits and occurrences of gold, but few significant occurrences of base metals. The same is true of the nearest similar body to the east: the Red Lake greenstone belt. The Rice Lake greenstone belt, in Manitoba, together with the Red Lake, Bee Lake, and Pickle Lake greenstone belts, in Ontario, form the Uchi subprovince.
The Rice Lake greenstone belt and its equivalent in Ontario, the Red Lake greenstone belt, are important Archean lode gold mining areas. There are more than 200 gold occurrences in the Rice Lake greenstone belt, most of them associated with quartz-veining in Neoarchean rocks, and therefore with phases of brittle deformation....In the Red Lake greenstone belt gold mineralization is most abundant in Mesoarchean volcanic assemblages rather than in in Neoarchean assemblages as is typical in the Rice Lake greenstone belt.
"Of the fifteen formerly producing deposits ... eleven, including the San Antonio deposit ..., are hosted by massive mafic intrusive and/or extrusive rock units; three including the Ogama-Rockland Mine ... are hosted by quartz diorite, and one, the Elora deposit ... is hosted by greywacke.... The San Antonio, Central Manitoba ... and Gunnar mines were the most important gold producers in the Rice Lake greenstone belt... Although the association with mafic intrusive rocks (and extrusive rocks) is prominent throughout the Rice Lake belt minor gold mineralization does occur within sedimentary rocks units. At Wallace Lake, strata bound disseminated gold mineralization at the Gatlan occurrence is hosted by argillaceous quartz wacke (Gaba, 1984)" Richardson et al., 1996.
Wildcat's Properties
Wildcat's land holdings in the Bissett area are in six different parcels or locations on various sides of the town of Bissett:
1. Poundmaker - the largest land holding between 4 and 28 km's West of Bissett, with many old mine workings; currently a joint-venture project with Marum Resources. The old Poundmaker Mine features quartz veins with high-grade gold; other new zones of interest have been identifed and some gold zones confirmed.
2. Mike Power - a smaller piece of land, on the south edge of Poundmaker, about 5 km's WSW of Bissett. A soil geochemical survey in 2006 identified many anomalies and altered rock zones, indicating probable mineralization.
3. Jeep Property - another piece with old mine workings 12 to 20 km's East of Bissett; ythe old Jeep Mine was a high-grade producer in the past and the area is very underexplored; interesting anomalies and potential drill targets.
4. Siderock - another sizeable land holding located 24 to 36 kms East of Bissett, recently recognized to have Red Lake type geology, typical of gold mineralization.
5. Mable - a smaller, separate property just a little south of Siderock, about 25 kms ESE of Bissett; was previously referred to as the Ramrod property.
6. Garner - a good-sized land holding on Garner Lake, between 32 and 40 km's SE of Bissett (as the crow flies); features a shear zone and gold showings.