Carbonate-hosted Zn-Pb-Ag mineralisation in Washington Land, western North Greenland

Abstract

The multidisciplinary research project ‘Resources of the sedimentary basins of North and East Greenland’ was initiated in 1995 with financial support from the Danish Research Councils (Stemmerik et al. 1996). In 1997, North Greenland field studies under this project were carried out by the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) in Washington Land. A two-week field season included sedimentological and petroleum geology-related studies, and reconnaissance exploration for economic mineral occurrences. Washington Land is made up of Cambrian – Lower Silurian carbonate platform and Lower Silurian reef belt successions of the Franklinian Basin. In northern Canada, platform carbonates of the Franklinian Basin host a major producing Zn-Pb deposit (Polaris) and several other sulphide occurrences (Kerr 1977; Gibbins 1991). The platform succession in North Greenland has received less attention from an exploration point of view, and to date only a few, scattered carbonate-hosted sulphide occurrences have been discovered (Jakobsen & Steenfelt 1985; von Guttenberg & van der Stijl 1993; Lind et al. 1994). One sulphide occurrence was known in Washington Land prior to the 1997 field work (Norford 1972; Lind et al. 1994).