Southampton Island Integrated Geoscience (SIIG) project

J. Chakungal, D. James, S. Zhang, and M. Sanborn-Barrie (GSC Ottawa)

Meeting the needs of the mineral exploration industry by providing geoscience to reduce exploration risk in under-explored regions lacking modern geoscience data.

Southampton Island is lacking in modern, framework bedrock and surficial mapping. New data and ideas about mineral prospectivity are intended to generate new exploration spending in the region. The area has exploration potential for diamonds and base metals. The project was identified as a high priority for Nunavut in geoscience needs surveys in 2002 and 2005, and at the Northern Minerals Development Program workshop held at GSC Ottawa in December 2006.

The Southampton Island Integrated Geoscience (SIIG) project will be a partnered CNGO - GSC field-based project that will result in an updated geoscience knowledge base for a significant part of eastern Southampton Island. Field activities will include:

1. targeted geological mapping of the bedrock in order to upgrade the existing geologic map coverage, for which most of the area is of a reconnaissance nature dating from the 1960s,
2. providing an assessment of the exploration potential for mineral and energy resources in the Precambrian and Paleozoic rocks,
3. targeted mapping of the surficial geology,
4. sampling of bedrock and surficial materials for geochemical and geochronological analyses that will help characterize the geologic/tectonic environments and metallogenic associations, providing value-added information on prospectivity,
5. examination of oil shales in order to better understand their stratigraphy and potential as a hydrocarbon source rock in the Hudson Bay basin, and
6. integration of ground-based geologic data, satellite imagery and airborne aeromagnetic data in order to expand the footprint of ground-based studies.

The stratigraphic subproject (S. Zhang) will include a focus on hydrocarbon potential and biostratigraphy of the Upper Ordovician and Early Silurian rocks. In detail, Zhang will establish the biozonation for the Upper Ordovician and Lower Silurian sequence, improving biostratigraphic correlations between Southampton Island and known areas in Hudson Bay Basin. The subproject will also focus on improving knowledge of the thickness and distribution of the Boas River oil shale and its potential as a hydrocarbon source rock.

To compliment and assist the ground-based studies, a 53,000 line-kilometre aeromagnetic survey will be flown over eastern and central Southampton Island in 2007.