Miramar

Miramar Mining Corp., Nunavut

The formerly Miramar-owned Hope Bay Volcanic Belt is host to a number of Archean orogenic lode gold deposits. I spent a number of months in the central part of the property gathering data for an M.Sc. thesis, logging core and mapping.

Most of my time was spent in the central part of the belt at the Naartok deposit. Gold mineralization is associated with a large continuous structure known as the Hope bay Deformation Zone which cuts through various packages of mafic volcanic/volcaniclastic rocks. The mineralization occurs in structurally/lithologically controlled zones on the margins of the main deformation zone in areas of strong silica, carbonate, sericite and pyrite alteration. Much of the mineralization is confined to a geochemically unique group of Ti enriched Al depleted komatiites and komatiitic basalts.