Suzanne Paradis

Natural Resources Canada | NRCan · Geological Survey of Canada

The North Australian Zinc Belt is the largest zinc-lead province in the world, containing three of the ten largest known individual deposits (HYC, Hilton-George Fisher, and Mount Isa). The Northern Cordillera in North America is the second largest zinc-lead province, containing a further two of the world’s top ten deposits (Red Dog and Howards Pass...

Vanadium is currently considered a critical material in the European Union, the U.S.A., and other jurisdictions. The vanadium mine production for 2021 is estimated at more than 120 000 tonnes; however, the market base is expected to grow rapidly due to the increase in the use of vanadium for redox flow batteries. Currently, worldwide , many project...

The role of crustal lineaments in the development of the western margin of Laurentia, Selwyn basin and associated sediment-hosted Zn-Pb deposits (clastic-dominated, Mississippi-Valley-type) in Yukon and NWT, are reassessed through a new 3-D inversion strategy applied to new compilations of gravity and magnetic data. Regionally continuous, broadly N...

The Rock Canyon Creek REE–F–Ba deposit is a carbonate-hosted REE deposit located in the Alkaline Province of British Columbia, Canada, which hosts most REE mineralization. It shares tectonic, stratigraphic and structural similarities with nearby Mississippi Valley-type deposits. To constrain the dolomitization and mineralization processes, the δ²⁶M...

The Mississippi Valley-type, magnesite, and REEF -Ba deposits in the southeastern Canadian Cordillera are in the weakly deformed/metamorphosed Paleozoic carbonate platform of the Rocky Mountains. Most are hosted in dolostones of the middle Cambrian Cathedral, upper Cambrian Jubilee, and Upper Devonian Palliser formations and spatially associated wi...

Paleozoic platform carbonate rocks of the Rocky Mountains host Mississippi Valley-type (MVT), magnesite, barite, and REE-barite-fluorite deposits. Farther west, platform carbonate rocks of the Kootenay Arc host MVT and fracture-controlled replacement (FCR) deposits. This is the first systematic LA-ICP-MS study of carbonates in MVT and FCR deposits....

This paper combines petrography with in situ laser-ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry to document trace-element variations in pyrite (Py) from Mississippi Valley-type (MVT) and fracture-controlled replacement (FCR) deposits in the Kootenay Arc, British Columbia. Three generations of pyrite are Py 1, Py 2, and Py 3. Pyrite 1, the...

Please download for free at: https://doi.org/10.4095/329203 Sedimentary basins are prospective for a wide range of critical raw materials and improved mineral exploration targeting in these settings has the potential to reduce future supply chain disruptions. Herein we report public geoscience datasets that are used in Lawley et al. (in press) to...

Demand for critical raw materials is expected to accelerate over the next few decades due to continued population growth and the shifting consumption patterns of the global economy. Sedimentary basins are important sources for critical raw materials and new discoveries of sediment–hosted Mississippi Valley–type (MVT) and/or clastic–dominated (CD) Z...

Many exploration companies are now focusing on specialty materials that are associated with so-called ‘green technology’. These include ‘battery materials’, ‘magnet materials’ and ‘photovoltaic materials’, and many such commodities are also broadly labelled as ‘critical materials’ because they are seen as vital for industrial development, societal...

A new three-dimensional (3D) inversion strategy is applied to new compilations of gravity and magnetic data to reassess the role of crustal lineaments in the development of the western Laurentian margin, Selwyn Basin, and associated sediment-hosted zinc–lead (Zn–Pb) deposits. The region’s history is obscured by multiple tectonic overprints, includi...

A challenge for the global economy is to meet the growing demand for commodities used in today’s advanced technologies. Critical minerals are commodities (for example, elements, compounds, minerals) deemed vital to the economic and national security of individual countries that are vulnerable to supply disruption. The national geological agencies o...

The Rock Canyon Creek carbonate-hosted REE-F-Ba deposit has tectonic, stratigraphic, and structural similarities with Mississippi Valley-type and sparry magnesite deposits in the southeast Rocky Mountains. The main REE-fluorite zone is a steeply dipping body, extending 1100 m along strike, 50 m wide, and 100 m deep. It spatially coincides with pre-...

Clastic dominant-type massive sulfide deposits are well preserved in Upper Devonian carbonaceous mudstones in the Macmillan Pass district (Yukon, Canada). The Macmillan Pass deposits have been considered to be type examples of sedimentary exhalative Zn-Pb mineralization, whereby sulfides precipitated when hydrothermal fluids were vented into a euxi...

Pend Oreille, a carbonate-hosted Zn-Pb sulfide deposit, is the only base metal mine recently in production within the historically prolific Kootenay arc belt. The deposit consists of two spatially and lithologically distinct types of stratabound, carbonate-hosted Zn-Pb mineralization: Josephine and Yellowhead. The Yellowhead-type sulfide mineraliza...

Sedimentary exhalative (SEDEX) deposits are a subset of sediment-hosted massive sulfide deposits and provide our dominant resource of Zn. In the SEDEX model, base metals (Zn, Pb, Fe) are hydrothermally vented into sulfidic (euxinic) seawater and deposited coevally with the organic-rich mudstone host rock, resulting in laterally extensive layered mi...

Using the Rock Canyon Creek carbonate-hosted rare earth element (REE)–F–Ba deposit as an example, we demonstrate the need for verifying inherited geochemical data prior to reinterpretation. Inherited La, Ce, Nd and Sm data obtained by pressed pellet X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and La and Y data obtained by aqua regia digestion inductively coupled pla...

Fersmite ([Ca,Ce,Na][Nb,Ta,Ti]2[O,OH,F]6) is a complex mineral, occurring commonly as a strongly metamict alteration product of pre-existing niobate minerals in carbonatites, alkaline and peralkaline intrusions, and rare element pegmatites. Most well-documented primary fersmite localities in Europe are ‘alpine cleft’, also referred to as ‘alpine fi...

Historically, extracting dissolved solids from formation water was economically motivated. Today, main drivers are environmental benefits and regulations, as large volumes of water needed for hydraulic fracturing require treatment before reuse or disposal. The concentration of dissolved solids in flowback water increases with each use and may requi...

Most carbonatites were emplaced in continental extensional settings and range in age from Archean to recent. They commonly coexist with alkaline silicate igneous rocks, forming alkaline-carbonatite complexes, but some occur as isolated pipes, sills, dikes, plugs, lava flows, and pyroclastic blankets. Incorporating cone sheets, ring dikes, radial di...

The world’s main tantalum (Ta) resources are in pegmatites (e.g. Wodgina, Australia), rare element-enriched granites (e.g. Abu Dabbab, Egypt), peralkaline complexes (e.g. Nechalacho, Canada), weathered crusts overlying the previously mentioned deposit types, and in placers. Niobium (Nb) resources with the highest economic potential are in weathered...

Many models of sediment hosted massive sulphide (SHMS) deposit formation invoke basin restriction events that resulted in long-term stagnation and anoxia, in which sulphidic (euxinic) conditions ultimately prevailed. Euxinic conditions are then thought to provide a chemical trap for hydrothermally exhaled base metals. Here, we present Fe speciation...

Paleozoic carbonate-hosted barite-sulphide deposits in southeast British Columbia are hosted by Middle to Upper Cambrian massive to bedded dolostone of the Jubilee Formation (Grotto, Jubilee, Silver Giant, Lead Mountain, and Lancaster), and Middle Ordovician to Silurian massive and brittle dolostone of the Beaverfoot-Brisco Formation (Pedley). Thes...

Paleozoic volcanic and intrusive rocks from the Selwyn Basin are being investigated to establish if there is genetic relationship between volcanism and sediment-hosted massive sulphide (SEDEX) mineralization with the aim of improving mineral exploration models. The spatial and temporal distribution of dominantly highly alkalic magmatism and SEDEX d...

The Howard’s Pass district of sedimentary exhalative (SEDEX) Zn-Pb deposits is located in Yukon Territory and comprises 14 Zn-Pb deposits that contain an estimated 400.7 Mt of sulfide mineralization grading 4.5 % Zn and 1.5 % Pb. Mineralization is hosted in carbonaceous and calcareous and, to a lesser extent, siliceous mudstones. Pyrite is a minor...

The Prairie Creek district contains several types of carbonate-hosted Zn-Pb-Ag mineralization, including stratabound replacement sulphides, quartz-carbonate-sulphide veins, and classic Mississippi Valley-type. It is located in in the southern Mackenzie Mountains of northwestern Canada and within the boundaries of Nahanni National Park Reserve. The...

Prairie Creek is an unmined high grade Zn-Pb-Ag deposit in the southern Mackenzie Mountains of the Northwest Territories, located in a 320 km² enclave surrounded by the Nahanni National Park reserve. The upper portion of the quartzcarbonate- sulphide vein mineralization has undergone extensive oxidation, forming high grade zones, rich in smithsonit...

The Rock Canyon Creek REE-fluorite deposit is in the Foreland Fold and Thrust belt of the Canadian Cordillera, 300 metres east of the Munroe Lake thrust fault which, in the deposit area, divides the Main Ranges from the Front Ranges of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. A literature review and preliminary fieldwork indicate that the deposit is hosted by...

At Macmillan Pass, the hydrothermal vent complexes beneath two shale-hosted massive sulphide (SHMS) deposits (Tom, Jason) are well preserved within Late Devonian strata. These deposits provide a unique opportunity to constrain key geochemical parameters (temperature, salinity, pH, fO2, ΣS) that are critical for metal transport and deposition in SHM...

Juvenile 1.89 Ga oceanic arc volcanic rocks of the Flin Flon volcanic belt at Snow Lake are characterized by extensive zones with anomalous 1.82 Ga metamorphic mineral assemblages, including porphyroblasts of garnet, staurolite, amphibole, biotite, gahnite, and/or kyanite. They were produced from altered rocks created during premetamorphic, 1.89 Ga...

The Howard’s Pass district, located in Yukon Territory, comprises 14 Zn-Pb sedimentary exhalative (SEDEX) deposits that collectively contain approximately 400.7 Mt grading at 4.5 % Zn and 1.5 % Pb. Sulfide mineralization is hosted in carbonaceous and calcareous to siliceous mudstones. Pyrite is a minor but ubiquitous component. Detailed petrographi...

Highly positive δ34S values in sulphide minerals are a common feature of shale hosted massive sulphide deposits (SHMS). Often this is attributed to near quantitative consumption of seawater sulphate, and for Paleozoic strata of the Selwyn Basin (Canada), this is thought to occur during bacterial sulphate reduction (BSR) in a euxinic water column. I...

Carbonate-hosted Pb and Zn mineralization in the Quesnel Lake district (Flipper Creek, Dolomite Flats, Main, Gunn, and Que deposits) forms an ∼8-km-long belt in metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks of the Cariboo terrane, a displaced piece of the ancestral North American margin. The mineralization is strata-bound, dolostone hosted, and consists o...

Additional description of sampling and analytical methdologies

Additional description of sampling and analytical methdologies

Additional description of sampling and analytical methdologies

Additional description of sampling and analytical methdologies

Additional description of sampling and analytical methdologies

Additional description of sampling and analytical methdologies

Sediment-hosted massive sulfide (SHMS) mineralization occurred in three main episodes during the evolution of the Selwyn Basin, Yukon, and Northwest Territories, Canada. In the Macmillan Pass district (Tom and Jason deposits), the Upper Devonian strata of the Earn Group host the youngest, least deformed examples of SHMS mineralization. The Earn Gro...

The use of visible-near infrared and short wave infrared spectroscopy (VNIR-SWIR) in the exploration for sediment-hosted Zn-Pb [a.k.a. SEDimentary EXhalative (SEDEX)] deposits was tested in basinal shale environments of the Howard's Pass and MacMillan Pass districts, Selwyn Basin. The Howard's Pass District hosts twelve SEDEX Zn-Pb deposits. Minera...

The Howard's Pass District, Yukon hosts twelve sedimentary exhalative (SEDEX) Zn-Pb deposits that contain approximately 393 Mt grading at 4.5% Zn and 1.5% Pb. Sulphide mineralization is hosted in carbonaceous and calcareous to siliceous mudstones. Pyrite is a minor but ubiquitous component. Detailed petrographic analysis reveals that pyrite has a c...

A glacial dispersal study was conducted around a subcropping Pb-Zn deposit (O28) in the Pine Point Mississippi Valley-type (MVT) district, Northwest Territories, Canada, with the intent of characterizing and documenting the indicator minerals and their dispersal from a known orebody. Mapping of striations adjacent to deposit O28, and throughout the...

Many carbonate-hosted sulphide deposits in the Salmo district of southern British Columbia have near-surface Zn- and Pb-bearing iron oxide-rich gossans. The gossans formed when carbonate-hosted, base metal sulphides were subjected to intense supergene weathering processes and metals were liberated by the oxidation of sulphide minerals. Two types of...

This study evaluates the suitability of portable (handheld) X-Ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF) in the exploration for Aley-type 'hard-rock' (primary) carbonatite-hosted Nb deposits. The assessment consists of comparisons between: (1) results of pXRF analyses on selected pulp samples and results of analyses of the same pulps using traditional la...

Phosphate deposits are the main source of raw materials used by the phosphate fertilizer industry and, in recent years, they have also been considered as potential sources of rare earth elements (REEs) and fluorine (F). Based on 160 portable XRF (pXRF) measurements taken on 32 pulps of naturally occurring phosphate rocks from the Fernie Formation (...

Handheld (portable) X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) instruments are designed for use in the exploration for base metals, precious metals, and specialty metals (e.g. rare earth elements (REE), Ta, and Nb) and allow rapid decision-making directly in the field. This paper evaluates the technical merits and limitations of pXRF technology in the exploration f...

The Mesoproterozoic Purcell Basin in Canada contains three different types of veins: (1) type 1 Pb-Zn-Ag veins are composed of Fe-rich sphalerite, pyrrhotite, galena, freibergite, and pyrite with minor quartz gangue; (2) type 2 Pb-Ag-Cu-Au veins are characterized by galena, pyrite, freibergite, and gold in a quartz gangue; and (3) type 3 Ag-Pb-Zn v...

Results from an indicator mineral survey conducted with till samples in NW Alberta were used to identify a glacial dispersal train of sand-sized sphalerite and minor galena. High concentrations of dark grey to black, angular, brittle grains of sphalerite were found (100 to >1000 grains) in nine of ninety 30 kg till samples. The presence of high sph...

This paper provides an integrated field and geochemical study of weakly alkalic, ~360 Ma mafic rocks from the Yukon–Tanana terrane in the Finlayson Lake region, southeastern Yukon. These mafic rocks occur as dykes and sills that crosscut older felsic metavolcanic rocks and metasedimentary rocks (Kudz Ze Kayah unit) or as flows interlayered with car...

The Flavrian pluton is a sill-shaped intrusion in the Blake River Group (BRG) volcanic rocks in the Noranda region of the Abitibi greenstone belt. The pluton is dominated by trondhjemites and tonalites, with minor peripheral quartz gabbro and hybrid phases. The BRG volcanic rocks consist of a bimodal suite of basalt–andesite and rhyolite. The Flavr...

A dispersal train, containing elevated concentrations of sphalerite and minor galena grains within the sand-sized fraction of till, was discovered as part of a regional glacial sediment sampling survey completed in northwest Alberta. High concentrations of dark grey to black, angular, brittle grains of sphalerite were found (100 to >1000 grains per...