102nd Annual Meeting of the Cordilleran Section, GSA, 81st Annual Meeting of the Pacific Section, AAPG, and the Western Regional Meeting of the Alaska Section, SPE (8–10 May 2006)
Paper No. 25-6
Presentation Time: 3:00 PM-3:20 PM

SULFUR ISOTOPE GEOCHEMISTRY AND GEOLOGY OF THE KEMESS NORTH PORPHYRY AU-CU DEPOSIT, TOODOGGONE DISTRICT, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA

MCKINLEY, Bradley, ROWINS, Stephen M., and DUURING, Paul, Earth and Ocean Sciences, The University of British Columbia, 6339 Stores Road, Vancouver, BC V6T1Z4, Canada, bmckinley@eos.ubc.ca

The Kemess North porphyry Au-Cu deposit (407 Mt resource @ 0.41 g/t Au and 0.22% Cu) is associated with a suite of Early Jurassic, high-K, calc-alkaline granitoids that has been emplaced into coeval, arc-related, volcano-sedimentary rocks, which fill a northwesterly elongated intra-arc basin. The different stages of vein formation and related alteration events were characterized in order to understand hydrothermal fluid evolution and evaluate the potential of the porphyry system to generate a late stage of epithermal Au-Ag mineralization. Sulfide δ34S values from Early-stage magnetite stringer veins and slightly younger quartz-magnetite-pyrite ± chalcopyrite ± molybdenite veins average 0.9 ± 0.5‰. These veins have chlorite alteration halos and host the bulk of the Au-Cu mineralization in the 202.7 ± 1.9 Ma monzonite porphyry. The Early-stage veins are cut by quartz-pyrite-chalcopyrite ± molybdenite and pyrite-chalcopyrite veins, which have strong sericite-chlorite (phyllic) alteration halos and average sulfide δ34S values of 0.2 ± 1.4‰. Late-stage anhydrite ± pyrite veins have average pyrite δ34S values of 0.3 ± 0.3‰ and anhydrite δ34S values of 11.7 ± 0.5‰. The average formation temperature of the Late-stage veins using equilibrium sulfur isotope fractionations between anhydrite-pyrite pairs is 474 ± 26 șC. Intersection of the lines of best fit for anhydrite and pyrite δ34S data (n = 4 pairs) on a δ versus δΔ diagram yields an estimate of 4.2 ‰ for the unfractionated sulfur source. This value is consistent with a magmatic source of sulfur and the anhydrite and pyrite δ34S values are typical of those measured in calc-alkaline porphyry Cu-Mo-Au deposits worldwide. The acute vein angles-to-core-axes in unoriented drillcore indicate that all vein-types at Kemess North dip 30ș to 40° to the horizontal. This indicates that a preferred dip angle for veins exists. Structurally, the deposit has undergone significant post-mineralization dismemberment. An E-striking, steeply S-dipping, fault truncates the northern extremity of the orebody and structurally juxtaposes mineralized monzonite and Takla Group andesite against poorly mineralized Toodoggone volcaniclastic rocks to the north. Subsequent NW- to NE-striking normal faults have created a horst-and-graben style block shuffling of the orebody.

102nd Annual Meeting of the Cordilleran Section, GSA, 81st Annual Meeting of the Pacific Section, AAPG, and the Western Regional Meeting of the Alaska Section, SPE (8–10 May 2006)
General Information for this Meeting
Session No. 25--Booth# 0
GSA: Tectonic Setting of Mineral Occurrences in the Northern American Cordillera
Anchorage Hilton Hotel: Fireweed
12:50 PM-5:00 PM, Tuesday, 9 May 2006

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 38, No. 5, p. 70

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