Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Seabee Mine, owned and operated by Claude Resources Ltd., is located 125 km northeast of La Ronge, SK. Since mining began in 1991, this deposit has produced nearly one million ounces of gold at an average grade of 7.5 g/t., making it the largest producing gold mine in Saskatchewan. Most of the gold is located within quartz veins along a major fault zone that cuts through a large mafic intrusive rock body. However, exploration in the Seabee area in the past two decades has also identified other quartz vein-hosted gold prospects that are different from the main deposit. This research aims to better understand the controls and mechanisms of gold formation in these new prospects, and in particular to better determine how various rock structures (e.g., faults, fractures) controlled the mineralization process. In order to accomplish this, detailed geological studies of promising new deposits in the Santoy Lake and Pine and Porky lakes areas, west and north of Seabee mine, respectively, will be undertaken as student research projects. These studies will involve surface and underground geological mapping and observation of selected drill-core. Results from the two studies will then be integrated and synthesized with regional-scale observations, and age-dating of selected rock units, to establish both the mechanisms and timing of ore-hosting structures at the larger (tectonic) scale. An important, related objective of this research is to develop a set of methodologies in geological analysis that can be used to find economic gold concentrations in future exploration of this region. Skills and know-how in these methodologies will be developed and shared between university and industry personnel to help in future exploration, with the goals of stimulating new resource development and extending the life of this mining camp and production facility.