HANSON LAKE

HANSON LAKE – Saskatchewan, Canada

  • Type: Circular formation
  • Diameter: 550 m
  • Location: N 54° 38.5’ W 102° 48
McIlvenna Bay deposit “Circular Structure”. (Google image)’
We took this image of the McIlvenna Bay deposit located in Saskatchewan on our way EAST from Tuktoyaktuk. The mine is just south-west of Jan Lake airport (CKM4)..

Hanson Lake Saskatchewan McIlvenna Bay Project

Regional Geology

The McIlvenna Bay deposit is located on the western edge of the Paleoproterozoic Flin Flon Greenstone Belt (FFGB) which extends from north central Manitoba into northeastern Saskatchewan. The FFGB forms part of the Reindeer Zone, a subdivision of the Trans-Hudson Orogen, a continental-scale tectonic event which occurred approximately between 1.84 Ga and 1.80 Ga as a result of the collision between the Superior and Hearne Archean Cratons.

The Hanson Lake Block, the host terrain of the McIlvenna Bay deposit, is bound to the east by the Sturgeon-Weir Shear Zone and to the west by the Tabbernor Fault Zone. This supracrustal block extends to the south beneath flat lying cover of Ordovician sandstones of the Winnipeg Formation and dolomites of the Red River Formation. To the north, the block is bound by the Kisseynew Domain, a gneissic metasedimentary belt and the Attitti Complex.

In the Hanson Lake area, north of the Paleozoic unconformity, exposed Proterozoic rocks of the Hanson Lake Block are dominated by juvenile island arc, felsic to intermediate metavolcanic rocks, with subordinate amounts of mafic volcanics and sedimentary rocks. Oxide facies iron formations have been identified by diamond drilling and are readily identified in airborne magnetic data. The sequence has been intruded by various felsic intrusions, some of which are believed to be subvolcanic. Abundant diorite and gabbro plugs and dykes cut the sequence, as well as minor ultramafic intrusions. Supracrustal rocks in the Hanson Lake area are northerly trending, upright and east-facing.