Flin Flon greenstone belt

The Flin Flon greenstone belt, also referred to as the Flin Flon-Snow Lake greenstone belt, is a Precambrian greenstone belt located in the central area of Manitoba and east-central Saskatchewan, Canada. It lies in the central portion of the Trans-Hudson orogeny and was formed by arc volcanism during the Paleoproterozoic period.cite journal | author = Stern, Richard A.; Syme, Eric C.; Bailes, Alan H.; and Stephen B. Lucas | year = 1995 | title = Paleoproterozoic (1.90 1.86 Ga) arc volcanism in the Flin Flon Belt, Trans-Hudson Orogen, Canada | journal = Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology | volume = 119 | issue = 2/3 | pages = 117–141 | url = http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1995CoMP..119..117S | accessdate = 2008-02-17 | doi = 10.1007/BF00307276 ] The Flin Flon-Snow Lake greenstone belt is 250 km long by 75 km wide and is exposed just north of McClarty Lake. The belt is bounded by metasedimentary gneisses and metavolcanics of the Kisseynew Domain to the north and extends to the south where it is unconformably overlain by Ordovician age dolomite.

The belt is composed of volcanic and sedimentary assemblages that were emplaced in a variety of tectonic environments, and the eastern and western portions of the belt have distinct tectonic histories. The Proterozoic stratigraphy of the Snow Lake area is dominated by metavolcanic rocks of the Amisk Group, overlain unconformably by coarse clastic sediments of the Missi Group. Synvolcanic mafic to felsic sills and dikes, as well as granitic intrusions are found throughout the Amisk Group.cite paper | author = Norris, Jessica | title = Report on the 2007 Diamond Drilling Program McClarty Lake Project, Manitoba | publisher = Aurora Geosciences Ltd. | date = 2007 | url = http://www.troymet.com/i/pdf/2007McClarty43-101.pdf | format = PDF | accessdate = 2008-02-22 ] Basaltic and rhyolitic volcanics, associated with gabbros and ultramafic bodies from the Saskatchewan part of the Flin Flon greenstone belt are all chemically tholeiitic.

Economic geology

The Flin Flon-Snow Lake greenstone belt is one of the largest Paleoproterozoic volcanogenic massive sulfide ore deposit (VMS) districts in the world, containing 27 copper-zinc-(gold) deposits from which more than 183 million tonnes of sulphide have been mined. There are currently three copper-zinc mines within the belt: the 777 and Trout Lake mines in the Flin Flon area, and the Chisel North Mine in the Snow Lake area. There was limited diamond drilling in 1997 and 2000 that tested a 50-meter strike length and intersected a pyrite horizon that hosted some gold and silver.cite paper | author = Norris, Jessica | title = Report on the 2007 Diamond Drilling Program McClarty Lake Project, Manitoba | publisher = Aurora Geosciences Ltd. | date = 2007 | url = http://www.troymet.com/i/pdf/2007McClarty43-101.pdf | format = PDF | accessdate = 2008-02-22 ]

ee also

*Volcanism in Canada
*Trans-Hudson orogeny
*Geography of Saskatchewan
*Geography of Manitoba

References