Aley Carbonatite: A Paleozoic Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG) Deposit in North-Central British Columbia?

Iron ox ide cop per gold (IOCG) de pos its are rec og nized world-wide and in clude a num ber of world-class, high-ton nage, low-grade Cu-Au de pos its that are typ i cally hosted in in tru sive-hy dro ther mal brec cias and in clude the Mesoproterozoic Olym pic Dam (Aus tra lia) and IgarapeBahia Alemao (Brazil) de pos its (Hitzman et al., 1992). In the Ca na dian Cor dil lera, nu mer ous Mesoproterozoic brec cia bod ies in the Yu kon, col lec tively known as the Wernecke Brec cias, have as so ci ated IOCG min er al iza tion (Fig. 1; Thorkelson et al., 2001). De spite their eco nomic sig nif i cance, the or i gins and paragenesis of IOCG de pos its, and hence min eral de posit mod els and re lated ex plo ra tion strat e gies for IOCG de pos its, con tinue to be de bated (Hauck, 1990). In the Ca na dian Cor dil lera, ex plo ra tion for IOCG de pos its has fo cused on Pro tero zoic strata in the Yu kon and ad ja cent por tions of the North west Territories.