Alteration Facies Linkages Among Iron Oxide Copper-Gold, Iron Oxide-Apatite, and Affiliated Deposits in the Great Bear Magmatic Zone, Northwest Territories, Canada
Bibliographic record
Abstract
High-temperature metasomatism driven by ascent of voluminous, saline fluid columns in the upper crust plays a major role in the genesis of iron oxide-alkali alteration ore systems but fundamental questions remain on genetic linkages among iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG), iron oxide-apatite (IOA), albitite-hosted uranium, and skarn deposits that they produce. Excellent surface exposures of such systems in the Great Bear magmatic zone of northernwestern Canada record the depth to paleosurface, prograde evolution of iron oxide-alkali alteration facies, and mineralization. Across the belt, albitite corridors that are tens of kilometers in length record the earliest reactions between highly saline fluids and host rocks along fault zones and subvolcanic intrusions. Pervasive albitization partitioned metals from the host rocks into the ascending fluid column, leaving behind structurally weakened corridors of porous albitite. These corridors were cut, replaced, and overprinted by amphibole- and magnetite-bearing, calcic-iron alteration assemblages. In extreme cases, the discharge of calcium, iron, and specialized metals formed iron oxide-apatite deposits (±vanadium ± rare earth elements) while recharging the outgoing fluids in sodium, potassium, and base and precious metals. As temperatures declined and fluid chemistry evolved through fluid-rock reactions, the formation of potassic-iron alteration assemblages, breccias, and sulfides resulted in magnetite- and hematite-group IOCG mineralization. Within carbonate units, skarns formed prior to, are replaced by, and evolved to calcic-iron alteration facies. Skarns can locally host base metal mineralization. Tectonically uplifted albitite breccias replaced by potassic-iron alteration assemblages became a preferential host for uranium mineralization. The results of this study also illustrate that permutations and cyclical build-up of alteration products can arise from a combination of faulting, differential uplift, and renewed magmatism. Framed within an alteration-facies deposit model, alteration zones and mineral occurrences play a pivotal role in predicting the mineral potential of iron oxide and alkali-altered systems at district to deposit scales.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".