Landore Resources Limited, through its 100 per cent owned subsidiary Landore Resources Canada Inc. (“Landore”), is actively engaged in mineral exploration in Eastern Canada. Landore owns or has the mineral rights to three properties in Eastern Canada including its highly prospective Junior Lake Property.
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Summary:
Greenstone-hosted quartz-carbonate vein deposits typically occur in deformed greenstone belts of all ages, especially those with variolitic tholeiitic basalts and ultramafic komatiitic flows intruded by intermediate to felsic porphyry intrusions, and sometimes with swarms of albitite or lamprophyre dykes. They are distributed along major compressional to trans-tensionalcrustal-scale fault zones in deformed greenstone terranes, commonly marking the convergent margins between major lithological boundaries, such as volcano-plutonic and sedimentary domains. The large greenstone-hosted quartz-carbonate vein deposits are commonly spatially associated with fluvioalluvial conglomerate (e.g., Timiskaming conglomerate) distributed along major crustal fault zones (e.g., Destor Porcupine Fault). This association suggests an empirical time and space relationship between large-scale deposits and regional unconformities.
These types of deposits are most abundant and significant, in terms of total gold content, in Archean terranes. However, a significant number of “Tier 1” deposits are also found in Proterozoic and Palaeozoic terranes. In Canada, they represent the main source of gold and are mainly located in the Archean greenstone belts of the Superior and Slave provinces. They also occur in the Palaeozoic greenstone terranes of the Appalachian Orogen and in the oceanic terranes of the Cordillera.
The greenstone-hosted quartz-carbonate vein deposits correspond to structurally controlled complex epigenetic deposits characterized by simple to complex networks of gold-bearing, laminated quartz-carbonate fault-fill veins. These veins are hosted by moderately to steeply dipping, compressional brittle-ductile shear zones and faults with locally associated shallow-dipping extensional veins and hydrothermal breccias. The deposits are hosted by greenschist to locally amphibolite-facies metamorphic rocks of dominantly mafic composition and formed at intermediate depth (5 km to 10 km). The mineralization is syn- to late-deformation and typically post-peak greenschist facies or syn-peak amphibolite facies metamorphism. They are typically associated with iron-carbonate alteration. Gold is largely confined to the quartz-carbonate vein network but may also be present in significant amounts within iron-rich sulphidized wall-rock selvages or within silicified and arsenopyrite-rich replacement zones.
There is a general consensus that the greenstone-hosted quartz-carbonate vein deposits are related to metamorphic fluids from accretionary processes and generated by prograde metamorphism and thermal re-equilibration of subducted volcano-sedimentary terranes. The deep-seated, Autransporting metamorphic fluid has been channelled to higher crustal levels through major crustal faults or deformation zones. Along its pathway, the fluid has dissolved various components (notably gold) from the volcano-sedimentary packages, including a potential gold-rich precursor. The fluid is then precipitated as vein material or wall-rock replacement in second and third order structures at higher crustal levels through fluid-pressure cycling processes and temperature, pH and other physico-chemical variations.
A highly prospective Archean greenstone belt traverses the Junior Lake Property from east to west for approximately 31 kilometres. The greenstone belt ranges from 0.5 to 1.5 kilometres wide and contains many of Landore Resources' stated mineral resources and prospects. However, the greater proportion of this belt remains unexplored. The BAM Gold Deposit is located in the south-central area of the Junior Lake property and is interpreted as an Archaean mesothermal gold deposit in which gold mineralization is hosted by sheared and altered rocks of the Grassy Pond Sill and the BAM volcano-sedimentary sequence.
Mineralized structures appear to strike approximately parallel to lithologies, averaging 280° strike and steeply dipping to the south between -65° to -80°. Gold mineralization remains open along strike to the east and west, and down dip.
The gold mineralization is interpreted to reside within a series of tabular shaped zones that are oriented in a roughly en-echelon configuration and are generally parallel to the overall strike of the host rock units. The gold mineralization occurs as a fine dissemination and is also commonly observed in drill core to exist as visible gold that is hosted by very thin, foliation-parallel quartz-rich veinlets, hosted by highly fissile ultramafic sediments of the BAM Sequence, or by foliated rocks of the Grassy Pond Sill. A preliminary petrographic study carried out on a number of samples has identified the presence of coarse native gold in association with either tourmaline, ankerite, or scheelite assemblages that occur within calcite replacement patches and veinlets.