The Latte Gold Zone, Kaminak's Coffee Gold Project, Yukon, Canada: Geology, Geochemistry, and Metallogeny

Author

Eric Buitenhuis, The University of Western OntarioFollow

Degree

Master of Science

Program

Geology

Supervisor

Dr. Norman A. Duke

2nd Supervisor

Dr. Craig S. Finnigan

Joint Supervisor

Abstract

The Latte Gold Zone is hosted within complexly tectonically imbricated metamorphic rocks of the Yukon-Tanana terrane. Snowcap assemblage psammitic schist and amphibolite with exotic Slide Mountain ultramafics overthrusts unidentified arc metavolcanics which in turn overthrust the Late Permian Sulphur Creek orthogneiss. Rapid unroofing of the Dawson Range during the Mid-Cretaceous culminated in dextral movement along the Coffee Creek fault system. A set of stacked, ESE–WNW trending, steeply dipping brittle fault structures served as conduits for gold-bearing fluids. Core-logging, detailed petrography, microprobe analysis, and PIMA investigations indicate that Latte is an epizonal orogenic gold deposit. Gold is hosted within arsenian pyrite in association with dolomite and illite, and was deposited by a CO₂-H₂O-As-Sb-S-Ag-Au fluid between 220 and 250° C which sulphidized metamorphic mica. Primary gold disseminations are locally remobilized by a CO₂-rich fluid and re-deposited within arsenian pyrite in breccias and dolomite-quartz veinlets.

Recommended Citation

Buitenhuis, Eric, "The Latte Gold Zone, Kaminak's Coffee Gold Project, Yukon, Canada: Geology, Geochemistry, and Metallogeny" (2014). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 1858.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/1858