SOCIETY OF ECONOMIC GEOLOGISTS, INC.

Special Publication, No. 15

The Challenge of Finding New Mineral Resources:

Global Metallogeny, Innovative Exploration, and New Discoveries

Volume II: Zinc-Lead, Nickel-Copper-PGE, and Uranium

EditorsR.J. Goldfarb, E.E. Marsh, and T. Monecke

Special Publications of the Society of Economic Geologists

Special Publication, No. 15

The Challenge of Finding New Mineral Resources:Global Metallogeny, Innovative Exploration and New Discoveries

Volume II: Zinc-Lead, Nickel-Copper-PGE, and UraniumR.J. Goldfarb, E.E. Marsh, and T. Monecke, Editors

First Edition, 2010

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ISBN: 978-1-629496-34-4

SOCIETY OF ECONOMIC GEOLOGISTS, INC.

Special Publication Number 15Volume II

Table of Contents

iii

Preface Richard J. Goldfarb, Erin E. Marsh, and Thomas Monecke vii

Sponsors ix

Zinc-Lead

Chapter 18Modern Sea-Floor Massive Sulfides and Base Metal Resources: Toward an Estimate of Mark Hannington, John Jamieson,Global Sea-Floor Massive Sulfide Potential Thomas Monecke, and Sven Petersen 317

Chapter 19Tethyan Zinc-Lead Metallogeny in Europe, North Africa, and Asia Neal A. Reynolds and Duncan Large 339

Chapter 20Sequences, Synsedimentary Structures, andSub-Basins: The Where and When of Sedex Peter McGoldrick, Peter Winefield, Zinc Systems in the Southern McArthur Basin Stuart Bull, David Selley, and Robert Scott 367

Chapter 21Vertical Dispersion of Elements in Thick Transported Cover Above the Thalanga Zn-Pb-Cu Deposit, Queensland, Australia: Evidence of Redox-Induced Electromigration S. M. Hamilton and G. J. S. Govett 391

Chapter 22Skarn, Porphyry, Vein, and Replacement Steven D. Bussey, Alejandro Kakarieka,Mineralization in the Toqui District, Southern Chile and Lawrence D. Meinert 399

Chapter 23Geology of the Little Whiteman Carbonate-Hosted Replacement Zn-Pb-Ag-(Cu) Prospect, Chris R. Siron, Murray W. Hitzman, Western Fortymile District, Alaska and Robert McLeod 421

Nickel-Copper-PGE

Chapter 24A New Perspective on Exploration for Magmatic Sulfide-Rich Ni-Cu-(PGE) Deposits Edward M. Ripley 437

Chapter 25Progress in Understanding the Evolution of Nickel Laterites J. Paul Golightly 451

Chapter 26Exploration, Discovery, and Geology of theNtaka Hill Nickel Sulfide Deposits: A Potential New Proterozoic Nickel District in the P. A. Tirschmann, C. S. MacDougall, Nachingwea Area, Mozambique Belt, Tanzania and G. R. Katchen 487

Chapter 27Exploration for Komatiite-Associated D. Layton-Matthews, C. M. Lesher,Ni-Cu-(PGE) Mineralization in the O. M. Burnham, L. Hulbert, D. C. Peck, Thompson Nickel Belt, Manitoba J. P. Golightly, and R. R. Keays 513

Chapter 28 James E. Mungall, John D, Harvey,Eagle’s Nest: A Magmatic Ni-Sulfide Deposit Steven J. Balch, James Atkinson, in the James Bay Lowlands, Ontario, Canada and Michael A. Hamilton 539

Chapter 29Present and Future Geophysical Methods forNi-Cu-PGE Exploration: Lessons from Stephen J. Balch, McFaulds Lake, Northern Ontario James E. Mungall,and Jeremy Niemi 559

Chapter 30Hydrothermal Vein and Alteration AssemblagesAssociated With Low Sulfide Footwall Cu-Ni-PGEMineralization and Regional Hydrothermal Györgyi Tuba, Ferenc Molnár,Processes, North and East Ranges, David H. Watkinson, Peter C. Jones,Sudbury Structure, Canada and Aberra Mogessie 573

Uranium

Chapter 31Uranium Exploration in the Past 15 Years and Recent Advances in Uranium Metallogenic Models David R. Burrows 599

iv

Chapter 32The Nature and Development of the Wyoming Uranium Province W. W. Boberg 653

Chapter 33Geological Evolution and Exploration Geochemistryof the Boomerang Lake Unconformity-Type Steve R. Beyer, Kurt Kyser, Uranium Prospect, Northwest Territories, Canada Eric E. Hiatt, and Ian Fraser 675

Chapter 34The Discovery of the Phoenix Deposit: A New High-Grade, Athabasca Basin Unconformity-Type Uranium Deposit, Saskatchewan, Canada William C. Kerr 703

Chapter 35Geology and Mineralization of the Recently M. Spivey, A. Penkethman,Discovered Rössing South Uranium Deposit, Namibia and N. Culpan 729

v

Preface

vii

This Society of Economic Geologists Special Publication isfocused on the global challenge of finding new mineral re-sources. Metals prices have once again been on the rise dur-ing the past few years and exploration budgets continue to in-crease. But the general trend of the past several decades hasbeen continuing; there tend to be fewer new discoveries andidentification of world-class ore systems are becoming rarereach year. Many terrains and provinces with long histories ofdiscovery have reached exploration maturity. Innovative ex-ploration in these brownfields environments, as well as in lesstraditional greenfields settings, is essential to meet society’sdemands for new mineral resources.

These two volumes represent the first detailed descriptionsof many of the most important new discoveries of the past fewyears. Most papers emphasize the key characteristics of de-posits from more than a dozen countries on six continents,particularly those ores rich in gold, silver, copper-molybde-num, zinc-lead, nickel, and uranium. A key to discovery is fol-lowing the lessons learned by experienced and successful ex-plorationists; thus, a large component to the majority of thesepapers is the inclusion of the steps that were essential to find-ing new orebodies. Many of the included histories detail howconcealed mineralized zones were first identified through theintegration of good geological field work with the most mod-ern techniques in geochemistry or geophysics.

Strategies for successful exploration are dependent on athorough understanding of the correct ore deposit model.Our ideas seem to be constantly shifting on key characteris-tics that are most useful in the exploration for a specific de-posit type. Hence, this publication also includes a number ofoverview papers for each metallic commodity that summarizethe current thinking on recent advances in the metallogenicmodels for the most important deposits containing resourcesof each commodity.

These papers contain the comprehensive material used tosupport the majority of the talks presented at the SEG 2010Conference, The Challenge of Finding New Mineral Re-sources: Global Metallogeny, Innovative Exploration, andNew Discoveries, held in Keystone, Colorado, October 2–5,2010. We thank all authors for their cooperation in helping tomeet a tight deadline, yet maintaining the required high qual-ity of the papers. This deadline was only met because of thecopy editing efforts of Mabel Peterson and Alice Bouley, andlayout skills of Vivian Smallwood. Finally, all papers benefit-ted from the input of expert referees, who are listed below.

RICHARD J. GOLDFARB, ERIN E. MARSHU.S. Geological Survey

THOMAS MONECKEColorado School of Mines

Gerardo Aguirre-DiazTawn AlbinsonNick ArndtGeorges BeaudoinBarney BergerPeter BettsGeorge BreitGraeme BroadbentCharles ButtZhaoshan ChangGraham ClossDavid CookeAlvaro CróstaMichel CuneyCynthia Dusel-BaconLeandro EchavarriaBob EppingerMartin FaircloughMarco Fiorentini

Jeffrey FosterJim FranklinBruce GemmellSarah GleesonRobert GregoryDavid GrovesSusan HallJacob HanleyCraig HartDave HeberleinJeff HedenquistMurray HitzmanAl HofstraCarmen HolmgrenAlex IriondoLarry JamesDavid JohnBob KamilliKaren Kelley

Rob KerrichSteve KeslerRod KirkhamJudith KinnairdDan KontakKurt KyserVic LabsenRoss LargeDave LentzMike LesherPeter LightfootWolfgang MaierPeter MegawDan McCoyVirginia McLemoreTony NaldrettRainer NewberryConnie NuttNeil Phillips

Eric PotterHoward PoulsenKlaus SchulzGavin SelfeDave SelleyStuart SimmonsAlexandra SkewesMoira SmithJon SpencerChuck SpirakisRebecca SprouleDave SzumigalaCliff TaylorAnne ThompsonAndrew TunksPeter WormaldOzcan Yigit

Reviewers of Manuscripts

The Challenge of Finding New Mineral Resources:Global Metallogeny, Innovative Exploration,

and New Discoveries

The Society of Economic Geologists, Inc., thanks our sponsors for their generous financialsupport of the SEG Conference held October 2–5, 2010, at Keystone Resort, Colorado

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Gold Resource Corporation

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