
The Coxheath Hills Claims are mainly underlain by a northeast-southwest trending belt of Precambrian plutonic-volcanic rocks in south eastern, Cape Breton Island, N.S. This is the westernmost of four plutonic-volcanic belts that forms part of the Avalon Terrane of the Canadian Appalachians and are considered to represent the remnants of an ancient, continental-margin volcanic/plutonic arc system in association with a west-ward dipping subduction zone.
A thick sequence of volcanic rocks consisting of rhyolite, andesite, basalt and tuff (Coxheath Group) in the north eastern portion of the property, are the oldest units. The volcanics have been intruded by a large coeval pluton (Coxheath Hills Pluton) of dioritic to granitic composition, in the western portion of the property. The entire sequence has been metamorphosed to greenschist or sub-greenschist facies and has undergone upright folding and tilting during the Middle Paleozoic and form topographic ridges across the property.
Two distinct areas are the focus of exploration work on these claims. The first area includes the historic Coxheath Copper Deposit and is located in the western portion of the claim area. Mine development was restricted to a series of shear zones in the Copper Brook Area. Significant mineralization also occurs around the old mine. Four main areas have been identified including the Mountain Mine Area, the Deep Pit Zone, the Aquitaine/Argyle Area and the Central Zone. Newly discovered mineralization in this area suggests that the Coxheath Deposit is a Cu-Mo-Au porphyry system.
The second area of exploration focus is in the eastern portion of the claim block approximately 4 km to the northeast of the main Coxheath Deposit.
Intensely altered shear zones in felsic volcanics contain extensive pyrophyllite mineralization. The combination of the regional geological setting, the structural geology and alteration patterns in this area suggests a genetic link with the Coxheath Deposit, which is consistent with deposit models linking porphyry copper and epithermal gold systems.
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