Important Geological Potential and Mineral Development Issues - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Important Geological Potential and Mineral Development Issues Related to the Peel River Watershed

Kevin Brewer, B.Sc(Hons), MBA, P.Geo Acting Director, Mineral Development Geoff Bradshaw, Mineral Assessment Geologist Yukon Geological Survey Energy Mines and Resources

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Overview

Goals and Objectives – Our Interest Geological Potential and Known Mineral Deposits Importance of Access Corridors and Critical

Perspectives

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Goal Sharing

To maximize the land base available to mineral

exploration

To ensure the sustainable development of mineral

resources while recognizing society’s environment and conservation objectives

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Typical Objectives from the Mineral Sector in the Development of Land Use Strategies

• provide an holistic and forward looking approach to

land use

• successfully integrate land use, conservation and

protection objectives

• to address short-term and long-term needs and

realities

• Work cooperatively with a broad range of

stakeholders

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Bedrock Geology in the Planning Region

• The Bedrock geology mainly

consists of rocks of the ancient margin of the North American craton

• Stratigraphy is dominated by old

carbonate and clastic sedimentary rocks

• The geology of the Peel plateau is

different, and consists of younger sedimentary rocks

• Proterozoic (very old) inliers are

important

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Mineral Claims in the Planning Region

• 2277 quartz claims in good

standing covering approx. 633 km2

• 6 Coal licenses
• 525 Iron and Mica leases

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Mineral Deposits in the Planning Region

• 11 known mineral deposits
• Coal: 7 deposits - Bonnet

Plume basin

• Iron Ore: Crest deposit
• Other deposits include:
• Goz zinc deposit
• Pagisteel iron deposit
• Hart River copper deposit

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Mineral Occurrences in the Planning Region

• 222 mineral occurrences
• Represent approximately

16 different mineral deposit types

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Mineral Potential in Planning Region

• Relative to southern Yukon, the

region has seen little mineral exploration

• Regions with potential for the

discovery of future resources are equally important to consider in land use planning

• A regional mineral assessment

completed in 1999 covers most of the planning region

• An updated assessment is in

progress

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Mineral Potential of the Peel Watershed

Compared to other regions of the Yukon there is a

high degree of uncertainty with regards to the overall mineral potential of the Peel Region due to:

The area is under-explored but yet appears to have

vast potential (this is mainly due to lack of existing access and infrastructure into the region and the subsequent high cost of exploring)

Some key data (e.g. regional geophysics is missing) Gaps also exist in current geological mapping

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Known Major Mineral Resources in Peel River Watershed

Crest Iron Ore Deposit

Value: $59 billion 32% of Yukon total reserves in overall gross

value

Bonnet Plume Coal Deposits

Value: $7 billion 4% of Yukon total reserves in overall gross

value

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Gross Mineral Resource Value

• 10,000,000,000

20,000,000,000 30,000,000,000 40,000,000,000 50,000,000,000 60,000,000,000

Iron Molybdenum Coal Zinc Copper Lead Tungsten Gold Silver Nickel Platinum Barite Cobalt Palladium

Yukon Mineral Resource Value May 2005

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Overview

Goals and Objectives – Our Interest Geological Potential and Known Mineral Deposits Importance of Access Corridors and Critical

Perspectives

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Access Corridors

Any land use strategy in the Peel Watershed area

must consider maintaining resource access to the major Iron ore and Coal reserves in the area

Access to highways, roads, winter roads and airstrips

is critical for mineral exploration and development

Future exploration and extraction of unknown mineral

resources must be maintained

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Other Critical Perspectives

Specific strategies are needed to address operations

in sensitive areas. However the key challenge is that the locations of specific habitat or high sensitivity areas are not well known

Good Legislation and Industry management

Practices:

Yukon Quartz Mining Land Use Regulations (MLUR)

under the Yukon Quartz Act

MLUR will also ensure that proponents comply with the

requirements of YESAA

Improved industry best management practices and

awareness of environmental concerns

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Summary

• Specific strategies are needed to address operations in sensitive areas

that will provide certainty to industry and ensure work can and will proceed appropriately in these areas

• Continued access to the region is critical to future mineral exploration and

development

• The Bonnet Plume coal deposits and the Crest iron deposit are best

known and have the highest economic potential and represent approximately one-third of the gross value of known mineral deposits in the Yukon today

• Regions with potential for the discovery of future mineral resources are

equally important to those areas with known potential

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Summary

• A regional scale mineral resource assessment was completed in 1999

that included this region and outlined regions of higher mineral potential but more work is necessary to fully determine the potential of the region and improve our geological and geophysical databases. An updated mineral resource assessment is currently in progress.

• The Planning Commission should assume there is a strong probability for

the discovery of additional significant mineral deposits in the Peel Watershed as well as the critical importance of the existing known mineral deposits

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Thank You