Combined Geochemical, Mineralogical, and Structural Investigation of Auriferous Quartz Veins at the Vertigo Target, White Gold District, West-Central Yukon Territory, Canada
Abstract
The Vertigo target on the southwestern JP Ross property is a gold-mineralized showing ~70 km south of Dawson City in the White Gold district, west-central Yukon Territory, Canada. Favourable gold-mineralized zones occur with pathfinder elements As-Ag-Te-Pb-Bi. This study uses digital borehole logging, petrography, electron probe microanalysis, and micro-x-ray fluorescence to evaluate the spatial, geochemical, and mineralogical distribution of Au mineralization at the Vertigo target. Petrographic and structural interpretations are contextualized with synchrotron radiation x-ray diffraction on 120 drill sample pulps. The clustering of diffraction patterns has revealed characteristic signatures of Au-mineralization with structural geometries coincident with the mineralogical clusters. The western Yukon and eastern Alaska experienced a protracted history of fault emplacement and mineralizing events with structural geometries prone to reactivation. The spatial distribution of mineralogical domains obtained from our objective cluster analysis provides compelling evidence for polyphase Au-mineralization at the Vertigo target.