A case history of the discovery and geophysical and geochemical signatures of the Burnt Pond sulphide prospect Noel Paul's Brook Area Central Newfoundland NTS 12 A/9

Abstract

The Burnt Pond prospect is one of six known sulphide deposits in the Victoria Lake Group of the Central Mobile Belt of Newfoundland, the others being the Tally Pond (Boundary) deposit, the Tulks Hill and Tulks East deposits, the Victoria Mine and the Jacks Pond deposit. The Burnt Pond prospect was discovered in 1974 by Noranda Exploration Company, Limited during follow - up of a stream sediment geochemical anomaly in a small brook flowing into the southeast side of Burnt Pond. The subeconomic sulphide mineralization consists of disseminated and fracture filling pyrite, sphalerite, galena and chalcopyrite hosted by the upper part of a pyroclastic felsic volcanic unit, and thin banded massive sulphides near the contact between the overlying sedimentary sequence and the felsic volcanics. This mineralization is thought to be associated with hydrothermal activity during the waning stages of island arc volcanism. Pervasive quartz-chlorite – talc alteration and sericitization accompanies the mineralization. The deposit has no discrete geophysical expression. The contact with the sedimentary units which overlie it is marked by a narrow graphitic shale unit which can be mapped geophysically by airborne and ground electromagnetic methods. Copper, lead, zinc and silver in soils show a strong anomalous zone over the mineralized area. The discovery of this deposit and the recognition of the thick volcanic sequence hosting it led to further work along strike in the Tally Pond area, 15 km to the southwest, which culminated in the discovery of the Tally Pond (Boundary) deposit in 1981.