The formation of economic‐grade noble metal and heavy mineral placers at high latitudes is facilitated by the interaction of high‐energy waves and currents with the multimodal size and density fractions of glacial material (Emory‐Moore & Solomon, 1989). Placers which form under such conditions tend to exhibit very irregular distribution patterns, such that these deposits are typically not distinguished by traditional sediment dispersal modeling techniques. In an effort to model sediment dispersal patterns in high‐latitude repons more effectively, multivariate geostatistical analyses, which have proven successful in modeling complex sediment dispersal patterns in a number of marine and lacustrine areas, were carried out on sediment geochemical data for 184 samples from a typical high‐latitude coastal site (North Cardigan Bay). A Q‐mode factor analysis of North Cardigan Bay sediments revealed that > 99% of the total variance in the data can be explained by four end members, representing (1) mixed quartz and...