Geochemical indicators of mineralization at the Yellowknife gold belt

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The Yellowknife City Gold project from TerraX includes over 700 square kilometers of contiguous land in one of the major gold districts in Canada. Through extensive drilling and assaying, TerraX has increased the known resources in the region and discovered new ore bodies. However, gold assaying is time consuming and expensive. Therefore indicators for the different gold mineralization styles that can be used in-situ or at broader scales than gold would be useful towards more efficient exploration in the belt.The objectives of this project are: 1) to use the available assay dataset from TerraX to determine potential major/minor element vectors towards different mineralization styles; 2) to re-evaluate pulp, coarse rejects, and core/outcrop corresponding to those assays through portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) in order to assess the reproducibility of assay data by pXRF analyses; 3) to run mapping and pXRF transects through known mineralized, unmineralized, as well as currently targeted structures in the belt to evaluate the capabilities of pXRF as a vectoring tool in the district.Portable XRF is a hand held technique that provides immediate geochemical data in the field. Therefore, if major and trace elements measurable through pXRF that correlate systematically with mineralization styles are identified, the time and monetary expense of exploration could be significantly reduced. Gold resources are a significant contributor to the economy of northern regions and the Yellowknife belt is one of several world-class Archean gold belts in Canada.This project will have an early stage of data evaluation with periodic reports and meetings between TerraX geologists, the PI and the student in the project. A later stage with six weeks of direct work with the company geologists will further ensure transfer of knowledge.