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Point Rousse Project
Location
The Point Rousse Project is located within the Baie Verte Mining District, on the Point Rousse/Ming’s Bight Peninsula, in the northern portion of the Baie Verte Peninsula, approximately 6 km northeast of the Town of Baie Verte, in north central Newfoundland, in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Geology and Mineralization
The Point Rousse Project covers an area of over 54 km2 and has significant access, mining, milling and tailings infrastructure. Point Rousse covers three prospective gold trends including the Scrape Trend, the Goldenville Trend and the Deer Cove Trend. These trends have approximately 20 km of cumulative strike length and include three deposits and numerous prospects and showings all located within 8 km of the Pine Cove Mine and Mill. The gold deposits at Point Rousse are orogenic gold deposits and are associated with the Scrape Thrust – a secondary fault associated with the larger-scale Baie Verte – Brompton Fault. Locally, gold mineralization is intimately associated with disseminated and massive pyrite within the host rock, indicating that iron rich rocks are an important precursor to mineralization. Iron and titanium rich lithologies in proximity to the Scrape Thrust are typical host rocks. Alteration within mafic volcanic and gabbroic rocks can be is characterized by albitization and carbonitization.
Stoger Tight Deposit
The Stog’er Tight area is host to several gold prospects including the; Stog’er Tight Deposit and its east and west extensions, the Gabbro, Gabbro East, Gabbro West, South and Cliff zones. The geological setting of the Stog’er Tight area is characterized by volcaniclastic, sedimentary and intrusive rocks, which form part of the cover sequence of Snooks Arm Group. At the property scale the mafic volcanic/volcaniclastic sequence is intruded by northwest-southeast-trending, north dipping layered gabbroic sills up to 40 m thick. The sills can exhibit chilled northern contacts and slightly, to moderately, sheared southern contacts (Kirkwood and Dubé, 1992).
The gold within the Stog’er Tight deposit occurs as fine grained (<0.05 mm) micro veinlets and disseminated blebs within the coarse pyrite aggregates. Visible gold was observed as rare very delicate flakes localized within weathered-out pyrite cubes and in narrow quartz veins. Generally, higher grades are associated with coarse mottled pyrite.
Pine Cove Zone
Mineralization is associated with a broad alteration envelope characterized by broad zones of very fine grained calcite and chlorite. Proximal to mineralization fine wispy orange-brown leucoxene is common in intrusive rocks and is either chaotically oriented or rotated and flattened parallel to the foliation. Where alteration is most intense, and gold mineralization occurs, iron-carbonate is pervasive, variably developed, brecciated, quartz veins and quartz-carbonate veins are observed as well as albite. Pyrite is part of the alteration assemblage and intimately associated with gold mineralization. Pyrite occurs marginal to the quartz veins, disseminated within wall rock fragments incorporated in the veins, and as minor disseminated pyrite within the quartz veins. The gold concentrations are directly related to pyrite content. The gold occurs as small disseminated grains (ranging from 1 to 50 microns) within pyrite, quartz veins and as thin stringers.
Deer Cove Zone
The Deer Cove trend is located in the northern part of the Point Rousse Project and defined by the alignment of numerous gold occurrences with a significant structure referred to as the Deer Cove thrust fault and extends for at least 3 km. The Deer Cove trend includes a suite of 16 showings and prospects, as well as the Deer Cove Main Zone, a small vein style deposit. Mineralization is generally hosted within the mafic volcanic hanging wall of the thrust fault within the Betts Cove Complex.
The Deer Cove Deposit and similar prospects and showings associated with the Deer Cove trend are hosted within mafic volcanic, volcaniclastic and clastic rocks which form the upper part of an overturned, south-facing ophiolite (Gower et al., 1990). To the south the ophiolite abuts talc-carbonate and serpentinized ultramafic rocks along the Deer Cove thrust. This thrust trends approximately east-northeast, dipping 50° to 60° north-northwest and has a south-directed vergence.
Mineralization in the Deer Cove Area is associated with two styles of quartz veining: quartz breccia veins at the Main Zone; and shear parallel, quartz breccia veins at several sites within the cover sequences rocks parallel to and above the Deer Cove thrust. At the Main Zone gold is hosted by discontinuous lenses of brecciated quartz developed within an approximately north-south striking, 45°-55° west-dipping structure that cuts the mafic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks. Pyrite with lessor chalcopyrite and arsenopyrite occur disseminated in the wall rock, breccia fragments and quartz veins. The zone has been traced by trenching and diamond drilling over a 500 m strike length but is still open along strike to the north and down-dip.
Exploration