GOLD MINERALIZATION IN THE FLIN FLON - AMISK LAKE AREA, SASKATCHEWAN

The distribution of gold occurrcnces in the Flin Flon and Amisk Lake areas indicates a stratigraphic or sttuctural control governtnsini bcalization of these deposits. In the Ftin Flon area, two generations ol gold mineralization are recogniied. The-early-generation deposits are natrow Qess than one metre wide) quartz-sulphide veins that occupy minor northwesterly trending fractures in basalt; these fractures apparcntly originated during the second recognizable regional deformation (P2) ti have affected the host rocks. The late-generation deposits occupy fractures (which formed diring thi third regionally developed tectonism, P3) around or within the Phantom Lake Pluton in the following settings: I) quartz veins in intensely carbonatized basalt, 2) multiple generations of quartz veining with attendant porphyry-style alteration in the Boot Lake Pluton, and 3) fotiated chlorite-carbonate-sericite rock with boudinaged quartz veins in the Phantom Lake Pluton. This late style of mineralization and associated alteration appears to be consistent with that generated by a fracturecontrolled porphyry system. In the Amisk Lake area, two types of gold occurrence are recognized: t) gold-quartz-carbonate-sulphide veins within or flanking fault zones, and 2) structurally and stratigraphically controlled zones of disseminated and vein4ype sulphide-gold mineralization within extrusive and intrusive rhyolite porphyries. Both types of deposit lie within supracrustal rocks, are accompanied by intense alteration haloes, and were formed prior to the major deformation event, P2 (thus suggesting their early epigenetic hydrothermal origin).