Geology, Exploration, and Discovery in the Tintina Gold Province, Alaska and Yukon

By

D. McCoy (Placer Dome Exploration), R. Newberry (University of Alaska, Fairbanks), C.J.R. Hart (Yukon Geology Program), T. Bundtzen (Pacific Rim Geological Consulting, Inc.), H. Farnstrom (Placer Dome Exploration), M. Werdon, and D. Szumigala (Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys)

The term Tintina Gold Belt was first coined in early 1998 to suggest an area of Central Alaska and the Yukon for which a newly defined and very prospective type of Cretaceous age intrusion-related gold deposit occurred. In the last few years, geologists in British Columbia have noted similar style mineralization extending south from the Yukon territory and questioned whether the Tintina Gold Belt should stop at the Yukon border. Still other geologists noted that much of the placer gold resource within this belt can not be attributed strictly to Cretaceous intrusion-related gold deposits. Still other geologists dispute the fact that all of the lode deposits are intrusion-related and/ or that there is enough similarity between the origin of various intrusion-related gold systems to include them within the same belt. Thus recently the term Tintina Gold Province has replaced Tintina Gold Belt to suggest a collection of numerous individual gold belts and districts throughout central Alaska and Yukon. This term suggests an area of elevated gold endowment but does not suggest a specific geologic origin; i.e., the term ‘Province’ suggests an empirical model for gold mineralization in the region. The purpose of this presentation is to examine the different styles of lode gold mineralization within the Tintina Gold Province. These styles include 1) ‘orogenic’ Au-only deposits possibly related to metamorphism, 2) 85–105 Ma intrusion related gold deposits that consist of both high temperature (350–600 degrees C) Au-Bi-Te-(As)-(W)-(Mo)-(Cu) deposits as well as lower temperature (150–350 degrees C) Au-As-Sb deposits, 3) intrusion— related Au-Bi-Ag-(Cu)-(Sn)-(base metal) deposits, and 4) volcanic related epithermal Au-Ag deposits of Tertiary age. The potential economic importance of each type will be discussed.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90008©2002 AAPG Pacific Section/SPE Western Region Joint Conference of Geoscientists and Petroleum Engineers, Anchorage, Alaska, May 18–23, 2002.