- SMDI #
- 0653
- Current Showing Name
- Nordbye Lake REE Showing
- Historical Showing Names
- Nordbye Lake REE Showing
- Company Name
- Project Name
- UTM Easting (NAD83 Z13)
- 590222.5400
- UTM Northing (NAD83 Z13)
- 6550116.5000
- NTS Sheet
- 064M03
- TRM (Township-Range-Meridian)
- 116-09-2
- Primary Commodities
- Rare Earth Element (Unspecified)
- Associated Commodities
- Thorium, Uranium, Zirconium
- Discovery Type
- Trench
- Status
- Occurrence: Primary Exploration
- Geological Details
- The showing consists of a trenched outcrop 540 ft (164.6 m) southeast of the northern end of a small peninsula 5.2 miles (8.4 km) west of the eastern end of Nordbye Lake and approximately 20 ft (6.1 m) west of the eastern shore of the peninsula.
The area is underlain by rocks believed to be part of, or equivalent to, the Aphebian Lake Group of the Wollaston Fold Belt. The main rock type is a medium to coarse grained meta-arkose which grades laterally into, and interfingers with, biotite paragneiss. Both rock types are locally granitized and are cut by massive sills of pegmatite, coarse grained monzonite and amphibolite. D.MacDougall mapped the rocks in the peninsula as pink, well-jointed, fine-grained feldspathic psammite and locally derived coarse-grained reddish brown to pink pegmatite sills and granitic bodies. Irregular pegmatites one inch to one foot in width and two to twenty feet long occur as metasomatic derivatives of the meta-arkose and paragneiss in east-west trending fractures.
Foliation regionally trends northeast and dips 75°SE parallel to bedding planes. Major faults parallel the regional structure. Locally, faulting is restricted to east-west trending zones. The meta-arkose and paragneiss are hard, blocky, highly fractured and strongly jointed. Minerals have been fractured in several stages and cracks have been infilled by microcline and hematite.
The mineralization is concentrated in fracture pegmatites of segregation origin and is restricted to east-west trending zones that are related to local faulting. The main zone, the A Zone, consists of two parallel sub zones of mineralized pegmatitic meta-arkose in meta-arkose. The lower and more extensive zone plunges east into the lake and covers an area 70 by 40 ft. The mineralization consists of rare earth oxides in xenotine, monazite (Ce,La,Nb,Th)(PO4,SiO4)], autunite Ca(UO2)2(PO4)210-12H2O, allanite, and zircon. Thorium occurs in minor amounts, and pegmatite-hosted pitchblende was tentatively identified in one drill hole and uranium and thorium were noted in a diorite dyke. Local disseminations of pyrite and magnetite occur throughout the area, especially in the paragneiss.
D. From the assessment files that sampled the showing and old cores and had the following values returned:
SAMPLE SAMPLE ZONE PPM PPM PPM PPM PPM PPM PPM
NUMBER TYPE SAMPLED LA CE SM EU DY HF SC
__________________________________________________________________
12154 channel A1d 790 970 47 0.8 <4 37 7.5
12155 channel A1e 1020 1200 64 0.9 3 59 3.0
12156 channel A1f 860 1200 51 0.7 2 23 3.0
12162 channel B4l 910 1200 46 0.8 <4 68 2.0
14418 core --- 1500 2300 150 0.1 ND 600.0 ND
14420 core --- 1700 1300 150 0.1 10 750.0 ND
14751 core --- 2200 ---- --- --- -- -- -----
14752 core --- 3700 ---- --- --- -- -- -----
14753 core --- 2300 1500 175 0.1 ND 600.0 7
20873 core --- 4200 3300 280 0.2 40 2600.0 ND
20874 core --- 2200 2600 260 0.2 11 820.0 ND; in 2018 corrected interchanged Hf and Sc values.
- Geological Domain
- Mudjatik
- Host Rocks
- Host Minerals
- Monazite, Zircon
- Indicators
- Exploration History
- 7/19/1989 The area was first covered as part of the Bozlan Oil & Gas Ltd. Permit No. 1 in 1968, transferred to Pacific Silver Mines & Oils Ltd. in early 1969 with Columbian Northland Exploration Ltd. being named as operator. Activity began in 1969 with a ground scintillometer survey in the area as well as ground checking of aeromagnetic anomalies. Geological mapping and prospecting was also completed at this time (AF 64L13-0002). The radiometric survey delineated several anomalous areas, one on the peninsula.
This was followed in 1970 by a detailed radiometric grid and geological mapping survey on the peninsula which outlined 6 anomalous zones, zones A to E (AF 64L13-0005). A detailed radiometric grid survey was carried out on each zone. Zone A was found to be the most anomalous; 4 trenches were drilled off and trenches 1 and 4 were blasted, cleaned and channel sampled. Results were highly discrepant with assays varying from 0.001% U3O8 by chemical assay to 0.11% U3O8 by radiometric equivalent. One sample with visible sulphides, sample number 17910, taken from the A Zone, assayed 0.015% Cu, <0.01% Ni, <0.01% U3O8 and trace Au. The discrepancy between results was suggested as being caused by inequilibrium between radiometric and chemical uranium, possibly produced by the escape of radiometric daughter products through the highly fractured rock from a buried source. Drilling was recommended.
Early in 1971, CBS 1810 was staked on the peninsula by R. Lebrun. This was later transferred to A. Mackenzie and then to Columbia Northland Exploration Ltd. The permit lapsed later the same year. Packsack drill holes were completed in 1971 which returned anomalous uranium values similar to those in the trenches but which were, however, very low (AF 64M03-0008). A thin section study at this time revealed xenotime (YPO4) associated with zircon; X-ray diffraction studies revealed monazite. In view of these minerals it was decided to assay for rare earths as the cause of the discrepant analysis. Fourteen samples of drill core and channel samples were taken. They returned trace to 0.42% La, 0.33% Ce, 0.026% Sm, 0.020 Dy, 0.015% Sc, 0.26% Hf; total per cent rare earths 0.008 to 0.23; rare earth oxides 0.009 to 0.275%, and average of all samples 0.107% rare earths (AF 64M03-0011).
In 1972, CBS 1810 was reduced to CBS 1896 by A. MacKenzie and was transferred to Columbian Northland Exploration Ltd. No further work was recorded and the claim block eventually lapsed.
- Production History
- Reserves and/or Resources