Abstract: A new widespread, structurally controlled gold mineralizing system has been identified during the 2010 exploration drilling program at the Coffee Project, west-central Yukon. The Coffee Creek area is underlain by a sequence of shallowly to moderately south to southwest-dipping Paleozoic metamorphic rocks that are considered to be part of the Yukon-Tanana terrane and are intruded by the Cretaceous Coffee Creek granite along a west to northwest-trending contact. During the 2010m drilling program, structurally controlled gold mineralization was discovered in all major lithological units underlying the Coffee property. Importantly, these mineralized zones correspond to a number of discrete structural corridors. The gold zones are steeply dipping and characterized by extensive silicification in addition to sericite and clay alteration accompanied by variable As-Ag-Sb-Ba-Mo enrichment. Polyphase breccias of both hydrothermal and tectonic origin, in addition to andesitedacite dykes, are common within the gold-bearing structural corridors. The dominant sulphide is pyrite, although trace arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite and stibnite are observed locally. The similarity of breccia textures and alteration/sulphide mineralogy between all gold zones currently defined on the Coffee property implies a common mineralizing event.

Authors: Wainwright, A.J., Simmons, A.T., Finnigan, C.S., Smith, T.R. and Carpenter, R.L.

Keywords: Coffee Creek, polyphase breccias, Yukon-Tanana terrane

NTS Mapsheet(s): 115J

Citation: Wainwright, A.J., Simmons, A.T., Finnigan, C.S., Smith, T.R. and Carpenter, R.L., 2011. Geology of new gold discoveries in the Coffee Creek area, White Gold District, west-central Yukon. In: Yukon Exploration and Geology 2010, MacFarlane, K.E., Weston, L.H., and Relf, C. (eds.), Yukon Geological Survey, p. 233-247.

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