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The Mineral Potential of the Proposed Mackenzie Delta Marine Protected Areas

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The Mineral Potential of the Proposed Mackenzie Delta Marine Protected Areas GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA OPEN FILE 1820 The Mineral Potential of the Proposed Mackenzie Delta Marine Protected Areas S.M. Solomon 7730000m7730000m7730000m ( 7720000m7720000m7720000m ( ( ( 7710000m7710000m7710000m ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( 7700000m7700000m7700000m ( ( 60000m 60000m 60000m 70000m 70000m 70000m 80000m 80000m 80000m 90000m 90000m 90000m 00000m 00000m 00000m 500000m 460000m 460000m 460000m 470000m 470000m 470000m 480000m 480000m 480000m 490000m 490000m 490000m 500000m 500000m 500000m 460000m 460000m 460000m 470000m 470000m 470000m 480000m 480000m 480000m 490000m 490000m 490000m 500000m 500000m 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 2003 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA OPEN FILE 1820 The Mineral Potential of the Proposed Mackenzie Delta Marine Protected Areas S.M. Solomon 2003 ©Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada 2003 Available from Geological Survey of Canada 601 Booth Street Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0E8 Solomon, S.M.. 2003: The mineral potential of the proposed Mackenzie Delta Marine Protected Areas Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 1820, 55 p. Open files are products that have not gone through the GSC formal publication process. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This study addresses the evaluation of mineral and aggregate resources in the 3 candidate Marine Protected Area (MPA) sites identified by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) in the southern Canadian Beaufort Sea. In this report, they are referred to as Mackenzie Bay, Kendall Island and Kugmallit Bay MPAs. The MPA sites were defined based on the boundaries of the Zone 1a areas as established under the auspices of the Beaufort Sea Beluga Management Plan (BSBMP). At the present time, BSBMP guidelines exclude oil and gas exploration, production or related construction and mining activities in these areas. As part of the process of developing regulations that would govern the proposed MPA, non-renewable resource assessments are required. Non-renewable resources within the Beaufort MPAs include two general types: industrial minerals and metallic minerals. Industrial minerals refer to sand and gravel (aggregates), silica sand, calcium carbonate and phosphorite. Metallic minerals, often referred to as placer minerals, are usually concentrations of heavy minerals with a specific gravity greater than quartz. In general, the proposed MPAs are in very shallow water locations, so that many of the usual surveys required for the assessment of marine minerals are not available. In particular, there are no useable high-resolution seismic or sidescan sonar surveys within the MPAs. This limits our understanding of subsurface and surficial conditions to only those specific locations where samples or boreholes have been collected. Extrapolation between samples and boreholes had to be undertaken by analogy with other locations and/or based on our understanding of sedimentary processes and depositional models in those environments. Because of these limitations, assessments employ a likelihood of existence system, which can accommodate situations where sample data is lacking and other indirect evidence such as the presence of suitable source rock, appropriate depositional environments and known geological history is applied. It can also accommodate negative factors such as dilution by glacial depositional processes or burial by recent sedimentation. Thus, this report includes an extensive summary of the available data on sedimentary texture and mineralogy and interpretations of geological history and sedimentary processes. The mineral assessments are based on a combination of sediment texture and heavy minerals and local depositional models. Sources of industrial minerals to the MPAs include the sediments transported by the Mackenzie River, materials eroded from the adjacent delta and older tundra deposits which fringe the MPAs. However, in general, the Mackenzie River supplies only very fine sand and silt, so it is a less important source than reworked coastal deposits. Coastal deposits form from erosion and reworking of sediments by waves which accompany wind storms occurring during the open water season. Waves attack coastal cliffs and rework sediments on beaches and in the nearshore resulting in removal of the fine materials (silt and clay) and the concentration of coarser sediments and associated heavy minerals. Wave energy is limited by the length of the ice-free period, extent of open water, the intensity and direction of storm winds and the shallow depths which characterize the nearshore zone. Of the 215 surficial grab samples with textural information compiled from water depths of 5 m or less in the Beaufort-Mackenzie region, 5 samples were located in the Mackenzie Bay MPA (1165 km2), 13 samples in the Kendall MPA (205 km2), and 40 samples in the Kugmallit Bay MPA (379 km2). Sampling density is obviously very low. Nine boreholes with textural data were located within the Kendall MPA; only one very shallow (< 1 m) borehole is located in the Kugmallit Bay and 7 boreholes are located in the Mackenzie Bay MPA. The fraction of sand in most of the samples within the MPAs is less than 75% and for many is less than 25%. Aggregate resources in the form of sand and lesser amounts of gravel are known to occur on beaches and in the offshore regions of the Beaufort Shelf and there are potentially exploitable deposits of sand and gravel within the MPAs. In all cases, there was insufficient data to quantify either the extent or quality of the potential resource, therefore, they are classified either as known or speculative occurrences. Table 1 summarizes the estimated quantities of materials in the known occurrences for each MPA. Considerable additional work would be required to quantify those occurrences with some confidence. In most cases, we have quantified potential resources in waters adjacent to beaches. Exploitation of those types of deposits would cause rapid and potentially severe erosion of the adjoining subaerial deposits. In addition, we anticipate that any deposits in water depths of less than 1-1.2 m are likely to be ice-bonded within 1-2 m of the seabed. Table 1: Aggregate potential in the proposed MPAs MPA Known Occurrence Mackenzie Bay 8 x 106 m3 Kendall Island 17 x 106 m3 Kugmallit Bay 3 to 13 x 106 m3 0.25 to 0.5 x 106 m3 4.5 x 106 m3 Total 33 to 43 x 106 m3 (conservative estimate) 183 to 493 x 106 m3 (speculative) The scale of the individual estimated MPA resources are generally similar to the scale of some of known offshore resources (Macleod, 1993). For example, the Issigak deposit located offshore from the Kendall Island MPA has about 14 x 106 m3 of quantified, probable and speculative amounts of sand and gravel. It is similar in magnitude to the occurrence in the Kendall area and may be an example of a drowned coastal deposit. Heavy mineral potential of the MPAs is considered to be low to very low based primarily on the lack of observed heavy mineral concentrations in either source material or marine sediments and the relative lack of marine energy available for sorting and concentrating minerals. However, the presence of precious metals and diamonds in the region and the relative paucity of directed sampling efforts indicate that the possibility cannot be ruled out. ii More accurate and complete assessment of the non-hydrocarbon resources within the proposed MPAs and adjacent nearshore waters will require a significant investment in surveying and sampling. Shallow waters with acoustically “hard” bottoms associated with sand and permafrost are notoriously difficult environments for geophysical surveying. However, given the scarcity of surface samples and cores in the proposed MPAs, we would recommend that efforts be made to improve the sampling density both for aggregate and for geotechnical purposes. iii Executive Summary .............................................................................................................i 1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................ 1 2 MARINE MINERALS AND MINERAL ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES ..................2 2.1 Marine Minerals...................................................................................................... 2 2.2 Mineral Assessment Procedures ............................................................................ 2 3 BACKGROUND INFORMATION................................................................................. 3 3.1 Study Area: Regional Physiography and Permafrost Regime............................ 3 3.1.1 Onshore .............................................................................................................. 3 3.1.2 Coastal areas...................................................................................................... 5 3.1.3 Nearshore and Offshore..................................................................................... 6 3.2 Sea Ice and Oceanography ..................................................................................... 9 3.3 Mackenzie River regime and sediments.............................................................. 10 3.4 Late Quaternary History...................................................................................... 10 3.5 Recent Sea Level History.................................................................................... 11 3.6 Regional Stratigraphy and Surficial Geology – Sources and Sinks of Aggregate and Minerals.............................................................................................. 11 3.6.1
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