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Gold/Mining/Energy : Canadian Diamond Play Cafi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E. Charters who wrote (827)	5/21/2003 3:39:41 PM
From: VAUGHN	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 16205

Hello Eric et all I have to fess up to a major geographically goof. The SWV/NEM Mellville Peninsula claims are described by those companies as Arviat North and Arviat South. Well, Arviat is no where near Mellville Peninsula and for some reason I confused the Mellville Peninsula with the Boothia Peninsula to the northwest which is largely Arctic Platform limestone with some outcropping Churchill province basement. Arviat is of course some 150 miles south of Rankin Inlet which in turn is some +/-400 miles south of Mellville Peninsula (approx 550 miles apart). Anyway, Mellville Peninsula is largely exposed Churchill Province basement principally metamorphic with significant intrusives, and some volcanics which is pretty much the same geology as is found near Rankin Inlet and Arviat for that matter to the south. The key point however is that Mellvill Peninsula and mid-Baffin Island were rifted from one another over the past 20 million years which is presumably the approximate emplacement age of the AV-1 kimberlite recently found there. While that event is probably related to the rifting/graben making up Prince Regent Inlet between Somerset Island and the Brodeur Peninsula, I doubt the pipes were intruded as part of the same sequence. Mellville Peninsula was rifted from the middle of Baffin Island to the east and from the District of Keewatin proper to the west, but hydrographic maps indicate that the graben beneath the Gulf of Boothia (trench to the west), extending down from Prince Regent Inlet does not extend anywhere near the Mellville Peninsula and no graben is obvious from hydrographic maps to the north or east of Mellville Peninsula. So while I doubt the kimberlites on Mellville Peninsula are related to those at Jackson Inlet on the Brodeur Peninsula they never the less have good geochemistry and have been intruded into Archean age basement at least 300m above sea level suggesting erosion may not be as significant an issue as I first anticipated. I can't tell what major structural liniments may be related to the Mellville Peninsula kimberlites, but presumably there are fissures and/or dike swarms associated with the rifting. SRM's targets near Rankin Inlet may well be related to the major sheer zone running through the area and controlling the Meadowbank gold deposit and the dike swarms that have been extensively mapped in the area. Its interesting to note that BHP has claims straight across the base of the Mellville Peninsula which they staked presumably on the possibility that the Prince Regent Inlet graben extended across the Mellville Peninsula ismus. If it did, which it doesn't appear to, but if it did, then those MP pipes probably would be related to those on the Brodeur Peninsula and Somerset Island. There are some informative links to the area although not entirely current on the NRCAN web site. atlas.gc.ca Click on Environment and then click Geology and later click Land Also for fun click Economic and then click Diamond (not updated since 1996 but still interesting.) Apologies to anyone I mislead concerning erosion on SWV/NEM Mellville Peninsula claims. Regards Vaughn