Tectonic, geochemical and metamorphic controls on gold mineralization at the island gold deposit and surrounding region, Michipicoten Greenstone Belt, Ontario

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Archean gold deposits are the most important source of gold in Canada. While mining of gold deposits in the Abitibi subprovince is well underway, the neighbouring Wawa subprovince is relatively underexplored, but this region has a similar potential for hosting world-class gold deposits. The paucity of regional gold mineralization models that can be used to target exploration drilling has hindered exploration in the Wawa subprovince. The Michipicoten greenstone belt in the Wawa subprovince represents a natural laboratory to use existing gold deposits to develop regional models of gold deposits that can be applied across this subprovince and to orogenic gold deposits worldwide. The main objectives of this multidisciplinary research program are to: (1) determine the structural setting and control on gold mineralization at the Island Gold deposit, (2) evaluate the nature and extent of alteration associated with mineralization as well as characterize the protoliths that host mineralization at the Island Gold mine, and (3) quantify the change in metamorphic grade from the Michipicoten Greenstone belt (hosting the Island Gold Mine) across the Wawa gneiss domain to the Kapuskasing uplift to the East. This research program builds on previous studies in the Michipicoten Greenstone belt and will generate an enhanced tectonostratigraphic framework to prioritize exploration at the local and regional scales and test the crustal continuum model for orogenic gold deposits.