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Exploration
Geology
Mineral Rights
Diamonds in Canada’s North |   Geological Setting Surface Geology Quaternary geology of the Mackenzie Diamond Project includes extensive thick glacial deposits that suggest a complex and variable glacial history. Formations observed are lacustrine sediments, several thin to thick boulder till sheets (exposed in sink-holes and deep-cut river valleys) and huge moraines. Drumlins are present in the north, and aligned lakes suggest rapid ice flow in the southwestern and southeastern parts of the property. Glaciofluvial deposits include large delta and floodway deposits, as well as prominent esker ridges, and kettle lakes. Glaciofluvial deposits are more dominant in the northern and north-eastern parts of the property. Government Quaternary mapping shows that most of the Mackenzie Diamond Project area is covered in a till veneer and a till blanket, with areas influenced by glacial fluvial processes. The project area is dominated by till veneer of less than three meters, which mimics bedrock topography, and till blankets of between three and ten meters, which masks, but is still influenced by, bedrock topography. These deposits are thought to be lodgement tills and are considered excellent for till sampling. Regional & Local Geology To the east of the Mackenzie Diamond Project is the Proterozoic Bear structural sub-province, which sits between the (proposed) Mackenzie Craton and Slave Craton. The Bear sub-province is dominated by the Wopmay Orogen, which records mid-Proterozoic rifting and subduction. The Wopmay is divided into tectonic belts including the sedimentary Hepburn Asiak and Tree River belts. The Great Bear Zone is Andean-type magmatic arc volcanism. Post collisional sedimentation is represented by the mid-Proterozoic to early Cambrian Coppermine and Rae Groups of the Coppermine Homocline. In the eastern part of the Mackenzie Diamond Project, near Dease Arm of Great Bear Lake, are gently-dipping clean-white sandstones and orthoquartzites, which are the basal unit of the Hornby Bay Group. Minor extension is represented by a large layered ultramafic body known as the Muskox Intrusion, and north-south Franklin diabase sills and dikes form prominent ridges north of the Dease Arm of Great Bear Lake. Paleozoic and Mesozoic Mackenzie Platform sediments occur along the Western Inland Seaway (Mackenzie River) east of the Mackenzie Mountains, and have been of great interest to oil and gas exploration companies. Large formations of Paleozoic shales, organic-rich shales, reef and platform carbonates are present. Rocks exposed on the property include Canol Formation organic shale, which overlies Kee Scarp Formation Devonian Limestone Reef deposits, from which much of the MacKenzie oil is derived. The Kee Scarp Limestones overly the 350 million year old Hare Indian Formation (shales) known from deep oil drilling. Basement Geology The existence of an underlying Archaean craton in the Mackenzie Diamond Project is theorized based on circumstantial evidence in the form of kimberlite indicator minerals and Archaean gneisses and granitic glacial erratics in the western, but not the eastern part of the property. Kimberlites are sourced from lithospheric roots of Archaean cratons. Kimberlites have not yet been discovered in the Mackenzie Diamond Project area, however, the discovery of kimberlite indicator minerals (pyrope, chromite and ilmenite) with fragile surface textures such as leucoxene alteration on ilmenite, and kelyphite coronas on pyrope garnet, suggests the existence of undiscovered kimberlites. Kimberlites, if discovered, will likely penetrate platform sediments to the paleosurface present at the time of emplacement. There are no known Archaean outcrop exposures in the Mackenzie Diamond Project, however, there are half-meter sized gneiss boulders near the western part of the property, but not in the eastern part of the property. Government glaciologists have predicted that these Archaean erratics were carried by the Laurentide ice sheet from exposed Archaean rocks some 350 kilometers to the east. The presence of boulders near the western part of the Mackenzie Diamond Project, but not on the eastern part of the property suggests that glaciers may have sampled a local, buried source. <!--[Photos for this section: general geology map, till samples, landscapes shots]--> | ||
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