Characterization of the precious metal-bearing base metal mineralization at the Homer Lake prospect, Yellowknife greenstone belt, Northwest Territories

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The proposed research will focus on the precious metal-bearing base metal mineralization at the Homer Lake prospect, located circa 25km north of the city of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories (NT). The prospect shows (semi-)massive sulfide accumulations in Neo-Archean basaltic lithologies. The genesis of the prospect is ambiguous since it has characteristics of both volcanogenic massive sulfide and shear-hosted mineral deposits. The proposed research will involve three highly qualified personnel (1MSc, 2BSc) of which the MSc will use a combined approach of field work and micro-analytical methods to fill in the lack of research on the Homer Lake prospect, Yellowknife greenstone belt (YGB), southern Slave craton. The MSc will focus on the spatial distribution of the (semi-)massive sulfides, their assemblage, texture, and mineral chemistry and constrain the genesis of the deposit with focus on hydrothermal fluid conditions, source(s) of sulfur, and relative timing of gold emplacement. This will provide a deposit model that explains the zinc-lead?gold-silver enrichment within a bimodal-mafic host assemblage and refine the mineralization style. The two BSc students will complement the MSc's work by constraining: (1) the temperature at which the deposit formed (BSc#1) and (2) the degree of alteration using whole rock geochemistry (BSc#2). The proposed research is a collaboration between academia (University of Manitoba), government (Northwest Territories Geological Survey), and industry (Gold Terra Resource Corp.) and will not only train highly qualified personnel in various skills that are highly sought after in academia, government and industry including core logging, data management and critical thinking; the results will also aid in understanding the mineralization history of the YGB. Furthermore, results from this study will aid in on-going and future exploration of base metal mineralization in both the YGB and the Slave craton and contribute to the on-going debate on the role of metamorphism and deformation on metal tenor. The study's outcomes will have the potential to positively impact the economic growth of the NT including local Indigenous communities.