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Red Dog
British Columbia, Canada
Main commodities: Au Cu Mo


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The Red Dog porphyry gold-copper-molybdenite deposit falls within the Wrangell terrane of the Insular tectonic belt, 37 km WNW of the Island Copper deposit in northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, (#Location: 50° 42' 38" N, 127° 58' 20" W).

The main geological units recognised in northern Vancouver Island include the Karmutsen Formation volcanics, Parson Bay Formation sediments and Quatsino Formation limestone of the Upper Triassic Vancouver Group, overlain by the northwest striking Lower Jurassic Bonanza Group volcanics and sediments. All of these units are intruded by the Early to Middle Jurassic Island Plutonic Suite and overlain by Cretaceous sediments which are believed to be equivalents of the Longarm Formation of the Kyuquot Group.

The Bonanaza Group volcanic succession in north-western Vancouver Island has been subdivided into a number of stratigraphic units that include a succession of rhyolitic lavas and ash-flow tuffs intercalated with plagioclase-augite-phyric and rarely hornblende-phyric intermediate to mafic lavas, tuffs and tuff-breccias. The structure of the area is dominated by NW striking, SW dipping stratigraphic packages and dextral faulting, while the rocks have undergone at least one episode of post-Lower Jurassic flexural-slip folding.

At the Red Dog deposit, bedded tuff, massive tuff, lapilli tuff and tuff breccia of the Bonanza Group were intruded by diorite, quartz diorite and quartz feldspar porphyry of the Island Plutonic Suite. The Bonanza Group volcanics have been metamorphosed to hornblende-biotite hornfels in contact zones on the NE side of the deposit and silicified, and altered in shear zones. In the SW, the Bonanza Group has been either intensely silicified and brecciated or altered to pyrophyllite, pyrite, sericite, zeolite and kaolinite.

In the NE section of the deposit, chalcopyrite occurs as fine-grained disseminations and within fractures in hornfels, while molybdenite is abundant on fractures and in quartz-sericite veins within shear zones. To the SW Cu mineralisation is more sporadic, associated with magnetite in siliceous breccias.

Drill indicated mineable open pit reserves, (Crew Resources, 1992) have been quoted as:

      25 Mt @ 0.44 g/t Au, 0.35% Cu, 0.006% Mo.

The information in this summary is largely derived from the British Columbia Geological Survey online MINFILE record for this deposit.

The most recent source geological information used to prepare this decription was dated: 2006.    
This description is a summary from published sources, the chief of which are listed below.
© Copyright Porter GeoConsultancy Pty Ltd.   Unauthorised copying, reproduction, storage or dissemination prohibited.


    Selected References
Leach D L, Bradley D C, Huston D, Pisarevsky S A, Taylor R D and Gardoll S J,  2010 - Sediment-Hosted Lead-Zinc Deposits in Earth History : in    Econ. Geol.   v.105 pp. 593-625
Schardt C, Garven G, Kelley K D and Leach D L,  2008 - Reactive flow models of the Anarraaq Zn–Pb–Ag deposit, Red Dog district, Alaska: in    Mineralium Deposita   v.43 pp. 735-757


Porter GeoConsultancy Pty Ltd (PorterGeo) provides access to this database at no charge.   It is largely based on scientific papers and reports in the public domain, and was current when the sources consulted were published.   While PorterGeo endeavour to ensure the information was accurate at the time of compilation and subsequent updating, PorterGeo, its employees and servants:   i). do not warrant, or make any representation regarding the use, or results of the use of the information contained herein as to its correctness, accuracy, currency, or otherwise; and   ii). expressly disclaim all liability or responsibility to any person using the information or conclusions contained herein.

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