Origin of PGE mineralization of the W horizon at the marathon deposit

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The platinum group elements (PGE) have a wide variety of uses, but the most important is as a catalyst for reducing air pollution in automobiles. The demand for PGE around the world will grow as emission standards for automobiles and trucks become more closely controlled. New sources of PGE will need to be found to meet this demand and in turn exploration strategies to discover resources are based on geological models. The Marathon Cu-Pd deposit is a well-know PGE deposit hosted by the Coldwell Intrusive Complex in northwestern Ontario. A new zone of mineralization has recently been discovered at this deposit, the W Horizon. The purpose of the present study is to determine the origin of the mineralization, i.e., can it be explained entirely by magmatic processes (e.g., is the mineralization part of a magma conduit system, were sulphide minerals resorbed by later intrusions) or whether the mineralization was remobilized by hydrothermal fluids. The origin of the mineralization will be established through a detailed petrological, lithogeochemical and mineral chemistry study of one diamond drill hole that cuts the W Horizon, together with supplementary studies of three other drill holes that cut different locations of the W Horizon. The model developed here can then be applied to an exploration strategy for additional resources at the Marathon deposit, elsewhere in the Coldwell Intrusive Complex and at similar intrusions around the world.