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An Evaluation of Reconnaissance and Follow-up Geochemical Surveys to Delineate Favourable Areas for Tin Mineralization in the Northern Canadian Cordillera

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Geology of Tin Deposits in Asia and the Pacific

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Abstract

The application of regional reconnaissance multi-element geochemistry is evaluated for delineating areas with tin potential. This approach is supported by a detailed follow-up geochemical exploration strategy which led to the discovery of previously unknown granite-hosted tin mineralization.

In the Canadian Cordillera of northern British Columbia and adjacent Yukon, stream water and sediments were sampled at a regional scale as part of the Uranium Reconnaissance Program. During this helicopter-supported survey, 4,400 locations were sampled at a density of approximately one site per 13 km2. Computer-generated contoured maps of U, F, Mo, W, Zn and Sn were produced at 1:1,000,000 scale to investigate their distribution and abundance in the 62,000 km2 area. This suite of elements is considered indicative of Sn-Wmineralization hosted in or associated with granites. The map highlighted stream geochemistry patterns which delineated terrains of “specialized” granites. The multi-element regional geochemical anomalies not only outlined known occurrences of Mo, W, Zn and Sn in the Omineca Crystalline belt, but also demonstrated that portions of the Surprise Lake batholith were greatly enriched in this suite.

Using a subset of the regional data (362 samples), two anomalous catchment basins within the batholith were selected for assessment of their tin potential. One drainage system showed a Sn-W-F elemental association while the other displayed an atypical Sn-Zn-F relationship. A detailed follow-up mixed-method sampling programme was conducted. Stream waters and sediments were sampled, heavy-mineral concentrates (HMC) were panned from stream sediments, and size fraction analyses of these media were performed. Stream water and sediment results confirmed the magnitude of the regional anomalies and the elemental associations. The areal distribution of anomalous HMC coincided with the results for various fractions of unpanned sediment and showed greater contrasts over background. For example, in the stream drainage system anomalous in Sn, Wand F, the Sn contents in the -500, -250 and -177 micron mesh fraction of HMC ranged up to two times, five times and eleven times greater than in the same fractions of unpanned sediments. The W content contrast was comparable, ranging up to 21 times greater in the -177 micron mesh fraction. Compared with samples collected from background areas, Sn in HMC from the stream drainage anomalous in Sn, Zn and F showed greater contrast in the finer fractions ranging from four times in the -2 mm mesh fraction to nine times in the -250 micron mesh fraction. No increase in Zn contents was observed in HMC compared to unpanned stream sediments. Analyses of different size fractions helped define prospecting areas within the catchment areas. Magnetite, cassiterite and gadolinite were identified in HMC.

Within the Sn-W-F anomalous drainage system, fractured and/or shear-related mineralization was discovered. It consisted of cassiterite-wolframite in quartz veins and veinlets, quartz-arsenopyrite veins and quartz-fluorite veins in altered granite. The mineralization within the Sn-Zn-F enriched drainage system is more complex. It consists of a network of fractures, veins and replacement bodies thought to have formed near the apex of the granitic body. Cassiterite was found in two mineralized zones. It occurs in massive quartz-sericite-cassiterite-beryl greisen and underlying replacement bodies of biotite-magnetite-sphalerite with minor cassiterite. Fluorite and kasolite were found in the peripheral alteration zones which could account for the consistent F-U anomalies measured in the streams.

The careful evaluation of regional reconnaissance stream geochemical data and subsequent detailed follow-up survey results have proven that a multi-method, multi-element approach to exploration can facilitate the discovery of tin mineralization.

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  1. Geological Survey of Canada, 601 Booth Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A OE8, Canada

    D. J. Ellwood

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  1. S. B. Ballantyne
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  2. D. J. Ellwood
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  1. Committee for Co-ordination of Joint Prospecting for Mineral Resources in Asian Offshore Areas (CCOP), CCOP Technical Secretariat, Offshore Mining Organization Building, 110/2 Sathorn Nua Road, 10500, Bangkok, Thailand

    Charles S. Hutchison

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© 1988 United Nations New York

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Ballantyne, S.B., Ellwood, D.J. (1988). An Evaluation of Reconnaissance and Follow-up Geochemical Surveys to Delineate Favourable Areas for Tin Mineralization in the Northern Canadian Cordillera. In: Hutchison, C.S. (eds) Geology of Tin Deposits in Asia and the Pacific. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-72765-8_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-72765-8_8

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