Gold in the Yellowstone Greenstone Belt, Northwest Territories: Results of the EXTECH III Multidisciplinary Research Project.: C. D. ANGLIN, H. FALCK, D. F. WRIGHT, AND E. J. AMBROSE, Editors. Pp. 448. Geological Association of Canada, Mineral Deposits Division, Special Publication no. 3 (DVD included). 2006. ISBN 1-897095-09-0. Price Can$76.00, Member Price Can$57.00.

Abstract

The Yellowknife greenstone belt in the Archean Slave province is one of Canada’s major gold mining districts, and one of the best preserved and exposed Archean volcanic belts worldwide. Declining reserves, following more than 60 years of continuous gold production, stimulated the initiation of the Yellowknife EXploration science and TECHnology project in 1998. The resulting EXTECH III project, the third of a series of projects initiated by the Geological Survey of Canada in collaboration with various university and industry partners, had the objective of defining new exploration targets for gold mineralization in the Yellowknife greenstone belt using new technology and exploration concepts accomplished through multidisciplinary studies and ran from 1999 to 2003. The EXTECH project built on a comprehensive geological and geochronological database developed over 60 years of government and industry mapping programs. Progress on the geological understanding of the Yellowknife greenstone belt had been incremental, with significant contributions from Jolliffe, J.F. Henderson, Brown, J.B. Henderson, and, more recently, Helmstaedt, Bleeker, and coworkers. The recent studies challenged some of the long-held views for the gold-bearing zones throughout the Yellowknife district, which since Boyle (1961) had been viewed as type examples of shear zone-hosted gold deposits. An improved understanding of the structural and metamorphic evolution of the region also warranted a new look at the controls on gold mineralization. Willingness from government, industry, and universities provided the impetus to develop the cooperative and multidisciplinary approach undertaken by the EXTECH program. The resulting volume contains 25 papers that are organized into five parts: historical background; regional geology; mineral deposits and regional metallogenic studies; exploration technology; and data integration. A mix of new data, integration, and interpretation of the principal deposits in the Yellowknife belt are brought together with chapters on the history and regional geology of the belt. Unfortunately, color figures and …