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Location: 1.5 km E from Levack, Ontario, Canada
6 Edison RoadFalconbridgeOntario, CanadaP0M 1S0
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The deposit is located in the Onaping-Levack area of the North Range of the Sudbury Igneous Complex (SIC), in Ontario. The Sudbury Igneous Complex (SIC) occurs as a 60 km x 27 km elliptical bowl-shaped body that formed from a meteorite impact melt sheet. The deposit consists of a basal xenolithic norite breccia (contact sublayer) overlain by norite, quartz-gabbro and granophyre. It represents one of a cluster of nickel-copper sulfide orebodies that have been located at the base of the complex over an approximately 10 km-long zone. Copper–nickel–PGE mineralized zones at Sudbury are spatially and genetically related to relatively small bodies of inclusion-rich material localized either at the contact between the main mass of the SIC and footwall rocks (contact sublayer) or within radiating and concentric dykes cutting footwall rocks (offset dykes). Three major variants of sublayer are recognized: igneoustextured gabbronoritic material; igneous-textured quartz diorite; and a wide variety of metamorphic-textured rocks collectively known as “footwall breccia”. Gabbronoritic sublayer typically occurs in contact deposits and in the proximal (0–2 km from SIC contact) portions of the North Range offset dykes. Quartz diorite is the main component of South Range offsets and of distal (>2 km from SIC contact) portions of North Range offsets. Footwall breccia occurs as sheets and discontinuous lenses concentrated along the lower contact of the SIC and as a major component of some of the offset dykes. Igneous- and metamorphic-textured sublayer are characterized by disseminated to massive sulphide and by the presence of a variety of xenoliths of both local and unknown or “exotic” derivation. Ore deposits of the North Range of the Sudbury Igneous Complex can be classified into 5 generic ore types (Coats and Snadjr, 1984): • Disseminated sulphides in the mafic norite of the Complex • Disseminated sulphides, stringer sulphides, massive sulphide lenses and interstitial sulphides in breccias in the sublayer norites • Massive sulphides and interstitial sulphides in breccia at the contact of the sublayer norite and the Footwall rocks • Sulphide lenses associated with massive sulphide stringers in Footwall rocks • Cu-rich massive sulphide stringers and dykes in Footwall rocks Ores of the Craig / Onaping occur as two of the above ore types. The Main or ‘contact’ ore zones are shallower deposits comprising massive, disseminated and breccia sulphides occupying a deep embayment in the mineralized zone of the Footwall breccia of the SIC. The Main ore zone sulphides grade into Footwall zone ores comprising Cu-rich massive sulphide stringers varying in width between 0 – 6m. It is thought that these ores originate from copper remobilization in the contact ore zone. Sulphide stringers in the SIC are typically oriented parallel to the Footwall contact, and are thought to occupy stress-related fractures in the footwall normal to the compressive stress generated by the igneous intrusion. The brecciation at the contact between the sublayer norites and the footwall rocks is related to shock generated by the rate of the igneous intrusion. Principal North Range sulphides are chalcopyrite, pentlandite, pyrrhotite, and pyrite. PGM’s occur as sperrylite or as a solid solution in the chalcopyrite or pentlandite. Narrow vein orebodies are generally classified as seams of between 0.1 and 3m with an intermediate or steep dip of 20 - 55o (Miller-Tate et al, 1995). The Onaping Depth orebody, like the Strathcona Copper Zone and the McCreedy East footwall ores, comprises multiple stringers of varying thickness within the thickness of the orezone, but can be considered a narrow-vein orebody due to the narrowness and steep inclination of the individual veins.
