ANOMALOUS HALOES OF PATHFINDER ELEMENTS FOR GOLD, UPPER-CANADA DEPOSIT, KIRKLAND-LAKE, ONTARIO

The Upper Canada gold deposit is located approximately 14 km east of t he town of Kirkland Lake, Ontario, within Timiskaming assemblage rocks which represent the youngest supracrustal unit of the Archean Abitibi Greenstone Belt. A lithogeochemical study of the alkalic intrusive an d volcanic rocks associated with this deposit has identified pathfinde r elements that outline haloes which extend up to 370 m from gold occu rrences that are useful in locating areas favorable for gold mineraliz ation. Pathfinder elements, and their threshold values are: Au (20 ppb ), As (10 ppm), Na (30000 ppm), Sb (1.4 ppm), Rb (75 ppm), W (4ppm), a nd Mo (5 ppm). Discriminant analysis of these data permits the accommo dation of all pathfinder elements in defining the size and character o f the mineralized aureole. Contoured probability maps were generated t o illustrate areas that have potential for gold mineralization. Use of this exploration technique could be effective in locating new explora tion targets based on gold pathfinder element values; they could also be used to help overcome exploration problems related to gold ''nugget '' mineralization, as well as in helping to locate faulted portions of gold zones.