LODE DEPOSITS
There are over 60 occurrences and prospects of lode
gold throughout the study area (Map 2, in pocket), and
almost all of these are vein deposits (Yukon MINFILE,
2003). Gold-bearing quartz veins in the Klondike River
and Indian River drainage basins, which are thought to
be the main source of gold for the Klondike goldfields
(McConnell, 1905b, 1907; Knight et. al., 1994, 1999), were
studied by Hoyman (1990) and Rushton (1991). Rushton
(1991) and Rushton et al. (1993) concluded that the veins
are mesothermal in origin and were emplaced in the
earliest Cretaceous (Plate 1b). Goldfarb et al. (2000) and
Goldfarb et al. (2001) classified these veins as ‘orogenic
Au deposits’ and suggested that they may be part of the
intrusion-related gold deposits of the Tintina Gold Belt
(see British Columbia and Yukon Chamber of Mines,
2000). According to Goldfarb et al. (2001), Kula-Farallon
Plate convergence initiated gold veining along western
North America at ~180 Ma, which spread southward
from Alaska, through central Yukon (culminating about
140 Ma in the Klondike) and into British Columbia.
Approximately 40 kg (1300 oz) of gold was produced from
these veins at the Lone Star Mine (Yukon MINFILE,
1997). Ash (2001) recently proposed that the main source
of gold for the Klondike goldfields was gold-quartz veins
hosted by the Slide Mountain Terrane, which is now
mostly eroded and preserved as isolated klippen above
Yukon-Tanana Terrane basement rocks (Fig. 3). The
source of gold in the Klondike goldfields is discussed
further in the next section: General Stratigraphy,
Sedimentology and Placer Formation. |
