3D geometry and relative chronology of footwall mineralization in the Sudbury mining camp

在萨德伯里的萨德伯里火成杂岩周围的较老的下盘岩石中存在重要的矿化作用。萨德伯里火成复合体代表了18.5亿年前外星火流星撞击地球表面时形成的3公里厚的撞击熔融层。 在冷却的影响熔体片，硫化物金属液滴从冷却的岩浆分离，并解决了底部的熔体片，富铜，铂，钯的硫化物熔体注入下盘岩石和结晶厚块状硫化物脉。 从冷却的硫化物熔体中析出的流体与冷却的萨德伯里火成复合体加热的热地下水混合。这些流体溶解了一些金属，并重新分布，形成低硫化物、高铂钯矿化带。该项目的主要目标是通过描述块状硫化物矿脉的方向、空间分布和几何形状及其与低硫化物高铂钯矿化带形成的相对年代学，建立下盘矿化的三维模型。该模型将用于在萨德伯里运营的矿产勘探公司，并寻找新的下盘矿床。Broken Hammer存款已被选为该项目的目标地点。 该存款位于下盘岩石深处，萨德伯里火成岩复合体以北约1.3公里。 由于Broken Hammer存款将在一年内从开始到结束全部开采完毕，它提供了一个独特的机会，可以从上到下全面描述下盘存款的特征，绘制和研究块状硫化物脉和低硫化物矿化之间的空间和时间关系，并更好地了解下盘存款是如何形成的。

Significant mineralization is present in older footwall rocks surrounding the Sudbury Igneous Complex in Sudbury. The Sudbury Igneous Complex represents a three kilometer thick impact melt sheet that formed when an extraterrestrial bolide hit the surface of our planet 1850 million years ago. During cooling of the impact melt sheet, sulphide metal droplets segregated from the cooling magma and settled to the bottom of the melt sheet where copper-, platinum-, and palladium-rich sulphide melts were injected in the footwall rocks and crystallized as thick massive sulphide veins. Fluids exsolved from the cooling sulphide melts mixed with hot groundwater heated by the cooling Sudbury Igneous Complex. These fluids dissolved some of the metals and redistributed them to form low-sulphide, high-platinum-palladium mineralized zones. The main goal of the project is to construct a 3D model of footwall mineralization by characterizing the orientation of the massive sulphide veins, their spatial distribution and geometry, and their relative chronology with respect to the formation of the low-sulphide high-platinum-palladium mineralized zones. The model will be used by mineral exploration companies operating in Sudbury and searching for new footwall deposits. The Broken Hammer deposit has been chosen as the target site for the project. The deposit is located deep into the footwall rocks, some 1.3 km north of the Sudbury Igneous Complex. As the Broken Hammer deposit will be completely mined out from start to finish within one year, it offers a unique opportunity to completely characterize a footwall deposit from top to bottom, to map and study the spatial and chronological relationships between the massive sulphide veins and low-sulphide mineralization, and to better understand how footwall deposits form.