Conway Brown HBSc thesis abstract

Alto Ventures’ Miner Lake property is located 55 kilometers northeast of Beardmore, Ontario.  Historically, this property has been prospected for gold, which is Alto’s current target.  For this study two trenches, Trench 35 and the Musketeer trench, were investigated.  The outcrops were divided into five lithozones based upon the intensity of alteration, noticeable fabric, grain-size, strain observable within mineral grains, and strain observable within porphyroclasts. The rock within both trenches is ultramylonitic quartzofeldspathic schist originating from deformation and metamorphism of a plutonic tonalitic protolith.  Ductile deformation is largely homogenous throughout every lithozone, and brittle deformation is only observed within lithozones three, four, and five.  Brittle deformation becomes more pronounced with each increasing lithozone and provides an important route for hydrous fluids to enter the system.  Increasing amounts of fluid are correlated to increasing amounts of alteration minerals, such as chlorite and white micas, and are also correlated to increasing amounts of ductilely deformed quartz veins.  Areas of the trenches that display a higher abundance of deformed quartz veins have typically returned higher gold assay values, providing a possible control on the gold mineralization within the study area.

Therefore, it is suggested that rocks with greater abundances of alteration minerals and deformed quartz veins are better targets for gold mineralization.