KAT Exploration Inc (KATX)

[Rick-UK]

Schist and Handcamp

Below is the original PR from KAT Exploration in May last year, which mentions Handcamp, together with some more detail on Schist and some links. I was hoping to have time to explore in more detail and provide a summary of the value of schist in locating gold deposits, but I've run out of time. Anyone fancy taking that on? It looks very interesting to me and I'm sorry I don't have time now and apologies for the laborious text below...

Mount Pearl, May18, 2009 – Kat Exploration Inc. (OTC-Pink Sheet - KATX) is pleased to announce that on May15, 2009 it began trading on the OTC-Pink Sheets.

The listing will expand investment opportunities to a wider investor base, enhance liquidity of Kat Exploration’s shares, and provide the company with greater financing options to support its projects and sustain its expansion plans. This corporate milestone has caused great excitement in the home camp and holds promise to a successful venture for all present and future share- holders of the company.

Mr. Ken Stead (President) states that “Access to greater liquidity will help us accelerate efforts to bring our properties to their full potential and broaden opportunities to expand our operations internationally.” Kat Exploration Inc. holds a very promising portfolio of Gold, Copper, Silver and IOCG properties in the province of Newfoundland, Canada. In 2009, Kat Exploration laid out a series of programs to include prospecting, ground geophysical surveys and diamond drilling. These programs were designed to follow-up conductive anomalies identified by airborne geophysical surveys on the company’s 100% owned “Rusty Ridge”(IOCG) property. A recently completed interpretation of an airborne survey and an existing 3D inversion modeling of the magnetic data, show a discreet, strong magnetic anomaly underlying the “Rusty Ridge” area. Coincidental with this, are moderate to strong IP chargeability anomalies that suggest a high probability of significant concentrations of sulphides. This target has been selected for testing by diamond drilling late this summer and it’s anticipated that additional drill targets may be developed from results of prospecting and further interpretation of the ground geophysical surveys already completed.

As mentioned above, airborne or ground geophysics is planned for the “Lucky” copper/silver property on the Bonavista peninsula. This property consists of numerous copper and silver showings that was discovered intermittently on strike for approximately eight miles. Other properties will continue to have sufficient amounts of work completed this year to keep them in good standing according to provincial regulation.All of Kat Exploration’s properties are located close to infrastructure including hydroelectric facilities and well maintained roads that traverses the properties. These areas are receptive to mining, and the provincial government is a pro-mining organization that welcomes new projects of all kinds.

About Kat Exploration Inc

Kat Exploration’s principal objective is to locate, stake, prove up and sell mineral properties to major mining companies. It is the Company’s objective to take advantage of increased activity to generate numerous joint venture clients, and sales of our existing and yet to be acquired properties.

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and is subject to the Safe Harbor created by those sections. This material contains statements about expected future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements by definition involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Kat Exploration Inc. to be materially different from the statements made herein.

Ken Stead President/CEO KAT EXPLORATION INC Office: 709.368.1024 Cell: 709.690.2908 E-mail: [e-mail] Web: www.katexploration.com



The "Handcamp" gold property held by a group of prospectors is comprised of 17 claims and is located approximately 33km north of Badger, central Newfoundland and 10km northeast of the old abandoned "Gullbridge" copper mine. Abandoned logging roads run through the property allowing for excellent accessibility and mobility of heavy equipment. One 50m wide mineralized zone lies within a stratabound structurally complex zone which lies near a major east-directed thrust within the Roberts Arm Group and is reflected in folding, shearing and mylonite development. A volcanogenic sulphide zone lies within a northeast-trending sequence of mainly submarine mafic volcanic rocks and minor felsic volcanics and interbedded chert and argillite of the Roberts Arm Group. The sulphide mineralization includes Galena and Sphalerite along with Pyrite. Superimposed on the volcanogenic sulphide mineralization is epigenetic disseminated gold mineralization. The best sulphide mineralization is associated with sericite schist with veinlets and dissemination having been traced over a strike length of 1200m. Significant gold values have also been obtained from white chert. Assay results from the Handcamp property have given a wide range of gold values such as 53.3 g/t Au with over 2oz silver/ton.



Quartz-Sericite Schist HANDCAMP HAS STRKE LENGTH OF 1200M. OF Sericite Schist

Schist is a type of metamorphic rock that is chiefly comprised of flaky minerals and exhibits a plated structure known as schistosity. It is because of this characteristic structure that schists exhibit perfect cleavage, readily splitting along planes into thin flexible layers.


The mineralogical composition of schists is quite variable. However, some of the more common platy minerals that occur in the rock include mica, chlorite, hornblende, muscovite, biotite, and graphite. Crystals of these minerals are observable to the naked eye in samples of schist, which is one of the defining characteristics of the rock. Although not generally utilized commercially, deposits of schist may be a valuable commodity if they contain gemstones or metal ores. For instance, talc and mica schists in Upper Egypt have been mined for emeralds for thousands of years and have benefited various people and civilizations throughout history, including the ancient Greeks and the famous Egyptian queen Cleopatra.

Typically schists contain significantly lower levels of quartz than gneisses and many other rocks, but quartz-sericite schist is a variety of the rock than contains a greater amount of the mineral than normal. As its name implies, this type of schist also contains significant amounts of sericite, which is a fine-grained type of either muscovite or paragonite, both of which are relatively abundant silicate minerals. Found in various locations, one of the best known examples of quartz-sericite schist occurs in Canada, where it is a source of economically important gold deposits.

BACK TO THE ROCKS AND MINERALS GALLERY

BACK TO THE POLARIZED LIGHT GALLERY

////// PHOTO URL http://www.olympusmicro.com/galleries/polarizedlight/images/schistquartzsericitesmall.jpg /////// I think handcamp mineralization is similar to golden grove /////////////////////////////// Alteration Characteristics of the Archean Golden Grove Formation at the Gossan Hill Deposit, Western Australia: Induration as a Focusing Mechanism for Mineralizing Hydrothermal Fluids
Robina Sharpe and J. Bruce Gemmell

Center for Ore Deposit Research, University of Tasmania, GPO Box 252-79, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia 7001
Corresponding author: e-mail, [e-mail]
The Archean Golden Grove Formation is a 550-m-thick rhyodacitic tuffaceous volcaniclastic succession that hosts the Cu-Zn-rich Gossan Hill volcanic-hosted massive sulfide (VHMS) deposit in the Yilgarn craton, Western Australia. The Golden Grove Formation consists of volcanic quartz and altered pumice and shards, which were deposited during successive episodes of subaqueous mass flow. Coherent volcanics are absent from the Golden Grove Formation at Gossan Hill but form the main rock type in the hanging-wall Scuddles Formation. A massive dacite dome that overlies its volcanic feeder dike is inferred to occupy a synvolcanic structure that focused mineralizing fluids during the formation of the Gossan Hill deposit.
The Gossan Hill deposit consists of two stratigraphically separate ore zones interconnected by stockwork. The Cu-rich lower ore zone and the Zn-rich upper ore zone occur in the middle and upper parts of the Golden Grove Formation, respectively. Podiform zones of massive magnetite occur in the Cu-rich ore zone, where the formation of magnetite predates massive sulfide. The asymmetry of massive sulfide, massive magnetite, and alteration zones at the Gossan Hill deposit attest to synvolcanic structural control during mineralization.
The principal lithofacies of the Golden Grove Formation are sandstone and pebble breccia, which have a regionally extensive quartz, Fe-rich chlorite, and lesser muscovite alteration. At Gossan Hill, this alteration has resulted in near-complete replacement of tuffaceous components, causing substantial chemical modification of the primary lithologies. Quartz-chlorite (±muscovite) alteration is characterized by severe K2O, Na2O, and CaO depletion, with rocks consisting principally of SiO2, FeO, Al2O3, and MgO, along a quartz-chlorite mixing trend. Widespread preservation of pumice and shard volcanic textures within the Golden Grove Formation indicates that quartz-chlorite (±muscovite) alteration occurred soon after, or possibly during, sedimentation. The absence of diagenetic compaction textures further suggests induration of the succession during this early alteration stage, with the tuffaceous succession largely sealed from the texturally destructive effects of subsequent hydrothermal alteration, except where mineralizing fluids were locally channeled along synvolcanic feeder conduits.
Local intense hydrothermal alteration zones surround the Gossan Hill deposit and overprint earlier quartz-chlorite (±muscovite) alteration. These local alteration zones have the same extent as the sulfide vein envelope and represent hydrothermal alteration formed during sulfide-magnetite mineralization. Intense Fe-rich chlorite (ankerite-siderite) alteration occurs as a strata-bound envelope around massive magnetite, Cu-rich veins, and massive sulfide in the lower ore zone. This chlorite-rich alteration has strong FeO and MgO enrichment with minor chloritoid and andalusite that reflect intense acid leaching during hydrothermal alteration.
Iron chlorite (ankerite-siderite) alteration grades upward into discordant to strata-bound intense quartz alteration. Intense quartz alteration forms an envelope around Zn-rich veins and massive sulfide in the stockwork and upper ore zone. The trend from Fe chlorite-ankerite-siderite to quartz alteration toward the top of the deposit is consistent with the cooling of hydrothermal mineralizing fluids nearing the sea floor. Rhyodacite and dacite volcanics of the hanging-wall Scuddles Formation have a pervasive muscovite-calcite alteration. Muscovite-calcite alteration led to Na2O depletion and CaO and K2O enrichment associated with burial of the Gossan Hill mineralizing system.
We propose that the Gossan Hill sulfide-magnetite VHMS deposit formed during an evolving Archean hydrothermal system that began as part of a regional-scale, low-temperature seawater convection-alteration system. Initially, this system caused extensive replacement of the Golden Grove Formation by quartz and Fe chlorite (±muscovite); a process that sealed and indurated the volcaniclastic rocks by infilling of primary porosity and permeability structures. Due to subsequent impermeability of the host-rock succession, later and hotter mineralizing fluids that generated alteration and massive magnetite and sulfide at the Gossan Hill deposit were constrained to, and focused upward along, a synvolcanic feeder structure. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////THIS ONE IS EASYIER TO UNDERSTAND Economic Geology; August 2001; v. 96; no. 5; p. 913-938; DOI: 10.2113/96.5.913
© 2001 Society of Economic Geologists


GeoRef

GeoRef Citation

The Spectrum of Ore Deposit Types, Volcanic Environments, Alteration Halos, and Related Exploration Vectors in Submarine Volcanic Successions: Some Examples from Australia
Ross R. Large , Jocelyn McPhie, J. Bruce Gemmell, Walter Herrmann and Garry J. Davidson

Centre for Ore Deposit Research, School of Earth Sciences, University of Tasmania, GPO Box 252-79, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Corresponding author: e-mail, [e-mail]
Variations in shape, metal content, alteration mineralogy, and volcanic host rocks of the ore deposits in the two major volcanic-hosted massive sulfide (VHMS) districts of eastern Australia, the Cambrian Mount Read Volcanics and the Cambro-Ordovician Mount Windsor subprovince, strongly reflect their volcanic environment, conditions of ore formation, and hydrothermal alteration processes.
Lens and sheet-style polymetallic zinc-rich deposits such as Rosebery, Hellyer, Que River, and Thalanga are considered to have formed in moderate to relatively deep water environments (500–1,000+m). These deposits probably formed either on the sea floor (e.g., Hellyer, Que River) or by replacement of porous volcaniclastic units directly below the sea floor (e.g., Rosebery). The footwall alteration associated with these polymetallic VHMS deposits was controlled by host-rock permeability and porosity, which are in turn related to volcanic facies type, degree of fracturing, and synvolcanic structural architecture. Focusing of hydrothermal fluids along synvolcanic structures has resulted in well-zoned chlorite-sericite footwall alteration pipes within footwall lavas at Hellyer. On the other hand, diffuse fluid flow through very thick pumice breccia at Rosebery and Hercules has resulted in strata-bound, sericite-dominated footwall alteration zones parallel to the paleosea floor and the ore lenses.
Massive and disseminated, pyritic Cu-Au deposits, such as those in the Mount Lyell field and at Highway-Reward, formed by subsea-floor replacement and are associated with only minor zinc-lead massive sulfide ore. These deposits formed from higher temperature fluids (>300°C), in which copper transport is enhanced, and are commonly located in felsic volcanic centers dominated by shallow porphyritic intrusions (e.g., Highway-Reward). The Cu-Au ore lenses may be strata-bound (e.g., Mount Lyell) or crosscutting pipes (e.g., Highway-Reward) depending on the structure and permeability characteristics of the felsic volcanic host rocks. The presence of high-sulfidation alteration minerals (e.g., pyrophyllite, zunyite) in some of the Cu-Au deposits (e.g., Mount Lyell field) indicates that fluids were relatively acidic and suggests the possibility of magmatic fluid input into the hydrothermal system. Alteration zonation associated with the Cu-Au VHMS deposits is more symmetrical than that of the Zn-rich deposits, with sericite-rich alteration extending into the hanging wall, in keeping with the subsurface replacement origin of these deposits.
Synvolcanic gold-rich deposits, with high gold/base metal ratios are less common than the Cu-Au and Zn-rich VHMS ore types. The gold-rich ores (e.g., Henty, South Hercules) are strata bound in nature, have low sulfide contents, and are associated with central zones of intense silicification, surrounded by envelopes of sericite-pyrite and carbonate alteration. Volcanological and geochemical studies at Henty indicate the gold-rich ore formed by the replacement of particular volcanic units deposited in a relatively shallow water environment dominated by volcaniclastic facies, lavas, and limestones.
This spectrum of Cu-Au, Zn-rich, and Au-only deposits in the Mount Read Volcanics and the Mount Windsor subprovince is interpreted to represent a continuum from classic sea-floor VHMS ores toward those with features more akin to porphyry Cu-Au and epithermal Au-Ag deposits. This spectrum relates to the interplay between factors in the submarine volcanic environment and the character of the hydrothermal fluid as follows: (1) proportions of volcaniclastic, lava, and subvolcanic intrusive facies; (2) depth of seawater; (3) permeability and porosity of volcanic host rocks; (4) balance between magmatic components and seawater components in the ore fluid; and (5) temperature and acidity of the ore fluid.
Mineralogical, lithogeochemical, and isotopic studies have revealed a range of alteration vectors useful in exploration for both the Zn-rich and Cu-Au VHMS deposits. Carbonate and white mica compositional variations are highlighted as important mineralogical vectors; thallium and antimony halos may be useful trace element vectors; and oxygen and sulfur provide important isotope vectors toward the center of the hydrothermal system.

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/techniques/polarized/gallery/pages/schistquartzsericitesmall.html

http://www.olympusmicro.com/galleries/polarizedlight/pages/rocksindex.html

http://www.springerlink.com/content/m252372384625672/

http://econgeol.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/50/1/51

http://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/mindep/synth_dep/gold/vms/index_e.php