The Shakespeare copper-nickel deposit is hosted within gabbroic rocks (Shakespeare Intrusion) of the Nipissing Intrusive Suites situated along the north contact between the mafic intrusive body which crosses the Property and quartzites of the Mississagi Formation.
The Shakespeare intrusion hosts semi-massive to disseminated sulfides (Sproule et al. 2007). Sulfides, including pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, and lesser pyrite, are present throughout the intrusion in varying proportions, mostly in trace amounts. Significant accumulations are present as:
- disseminated pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite blebs at the melagabbro/gabbro contact, usually ~1 mm in size, typically comprising <1% of the rock;
- heavily disseminated to patchy net-textured (10-15%) pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, pentlandite, and gersdorfite in rounded blebsthat reach up to 2-5 cm in size, in the upperzone of the melagabbro;
- blebby pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite in the lowersections of the melagabbro and the base of the quartz gabbro.
The sulfides have experienced variable degrees of recrystallization during metamorphism. They vary from pristine magmatic blebs, to recrystallized blebs, to stringers, the latter of which tend to be richer in chalcopyrite.
Where the mineralization is proximal to shear zones that cross-cut the deposit, the sulphides can be sheared and attenuated. These sheared sulphides, together with the patchy-network textured mineralization, create an inter ........
