Wabash Lake Gold-Silver Claim Group, located in NW Ontario for OPTION
Option: The Wabash Lake claim group consists of ~200 hectares of the highly prospective Marmion batholith and is proximal to several gold-silver occurrences.
Access:
Access to the claim group is via Highway 11, northwest from Thunder Bay to Highway 623. Travel north on Highway 623 for approximately 5 km, then continue north on the Sapawe-Upsala Road for 8 km. Turn right on to White Lily Road and the property is located from 1km to 5km logging road signs. Caution is advised on all roadways due to traffic-related to area logging operations.
Regional Geology:
The Wabash Lake property is situated on the southern margin of the Marmion terrane within the central Wabigoon Subprovince. The Marmion terrane represents a block of old crustal material made up of a basement complex (Marmion batholith, ~ 3.0 Ga) mantled by younger greenstone sequences. The southern margin of the Marmion terrane comprises tonalitic to granitic rocks of the Marmion batholith and metamorphosed volcanic, sedimentary and plutonic rocks of the Lac des Mille Lacs greenstone belt, which extends from Atikokan east to Lac des Mille Lacs, where the belt subsequently tapers off to the northeast toward Legris Lake. To the south, the Marmion terrane is in fault contact with the metasedimentary rocks of the Quetico Subprovince (Stone 2004). These metasedimentary rocks of the Quetico Subprovince represent an accretionary prism that is interpreted to have been tectonically joined to the south margin of the Wabigoon Subprovince at 2.69 Ga (Percival and Williams 1989). The fault contact is the dominant feature in the regional geological setting, Located on the property. This boundary, a major east-trending structural zone that is characterized by intense and steeply dipping foliations and deformation, is referred to as the Quetico Fault. This fault zone is, in some places, up to 1 km or more in width (Purdon 1989). Dextral displacement along the Quetico Fault is estimated by various workers to be in the order of 120 km (Bau 1979; Williams 1991). M.A. Puumala et al.
Stone (2010b) describes 3 main phases on the Marmion batholith as comprising: i) biotite tonalite, ii) tonalite gneiss and iii) hornblende tonalite suites. The biotite tonalite suite is the most common rock type while the hornblende tonalite suite occurs in irregular to oval and highly elongate forms along the west, north and a portion of the southeast margin of the Marmion batholith. The tonalite gneiss suite occurs on the northeast and southeast margins of the Marmion batholith. A summary of the 3 phases are described by Stone as follows (2010b):
• Biotite tonalite to granodiorite (2994 to 2688 Ma): white to grey, generally medium grained and variably massive to foliated and weakly gneissic; an average of 11% mafic minerals with accessory magnetite, titanite, ilmenite, and zircon, amphibole inclusions.
• Hornblende tonalite to granodiorite (3002 to 2721 Ma): compositionally this suite ranges from tonalite through to granodiorite to granite and may also include quartz diorite and quartz monzodiorite. The rock is typically coarse-grained grey to white rock (locally grades to pink) massive to weakly foliated and has distinct lensoid diorite inclusions. Mafic minerals include amphiboles and biotite and accessory magnetite, titanite, apatite, allanite, ilmenite and zircon.
• Tonalite gneiss (3009 to 2673 Ma): texturally and compositionally heterogenous, layers vary from leucocratic to mesocratic tonalite and granodiorite to diorite and amphibolite. Layers range from a few centimetres to a few metres and have a wide variety of textures including boudinage of competent layers, folding, and development of foliated to mylonitic zones.
In the Lac des Mille Lacs greenstone belt, geochronology indicates at least 2 generations of intermediate metavolcanic rocks, at ~3008 and 2830 Ma (Stone 2010b). The Lac des Mille Lacs greenstone belt, south of Melema Lake, is largely composed of gabbro dikes (3005 Ma), intermediate metavolcanic rocks (~3008 Ma), massive mafic flows, and minor conglomerate, extending from Atikokan east to Boot Bay of Lac des Mille Lacs. Further east, at Lac des Mille Lacs, the belt comprises a 2830 Ma intermediate metavolcanic assemblage and the younger Puffy Pillow assemblage of mafic metavolcanic rocks (2725 Ma). In summary, Stone (2010b) suggested that the older Lac des Mille Lacs intermediate metavolcanic rocks (3008 Ma) represent remnants of the host rock into which the Marmion batholith was emplaced a few million years later. The Marmion batholith appears to have been rifted after emplacement, as indicated by the younger gabbro dikes (3005 Ma). Finally, 2 episodes of volcanism occurred at 2830 Ma and 2725 Ma.
Within the Marmion batholith, gold is associated with large-scale deformation zones and northeast trending fault zones. These structures appear to be secondary splay faults off the main Quetico Fault zone (Poulsen 2000). Pye and Fenwick (1965) produced a map identifying a set of parallel northeast-trending splays off the Quetico Fault (Figure 19). These major northeast-trending regional lineaments extend for approximately 20 km from Sapawe Lake through the Minto Mine, Minto North, Melema Lake and North Melema gold occurrences (Wilkinson 1982)
Property Geology:
The Wabash Lake property is underlain by biotite tonalite to granodiorite and hornblende-biotite tonalite to granodiorite gneiss of the Marmion batholith (Stone 2010a). A northeast-trending (020° to 030°) quartz + carbonate vein system associated with a set or series of subparallel fault and shear structures were traced intermittently for potentially 10 km.
Mineralization:
Quartz +/- carbonate veins and veinlets with accessory sulphide minerals and precious metals occur at the tonalite-greenstone contact and in altered tonalite to granodiorite interpreted to be associated with regional lineaments, faults, and shear zones. Alteration minerals include quartz, carbonate, sericite, and chlorite with accessory pyrite and chalcopyrite