Other Resources
A report entitled “ A Study of Potential Co-Product Trace Elements Within the Clear Hills Iron Deposits, Northwestern Alberta” was prepared for the Research and Technology Branch of Alberta Energy by Apex Geoscience Ltd. in 1999.
The lithogeochemical study of 151 samples, taken from a suite of archived Bad Heart Formation samples, was undertaken to evaluate the potential for selected elements to exist in sufficiently high concentrations to be important as co-products during possible future iron exploitation.
Results from the lithogeochemical study indicate that elements with elevated concentrations in the Bad Heart Formation oolitic ironstone comprise gold, arsenic, cobalt, chromium, lead, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, zinc, and some Rare Earth Elements.
However, none of these elements exist in concentrations that, in themselves, are economically mineable at the few areas where the archived samples are from. Nonetheless, their elevated character indicates at some places within the Clear Hills iron deposits they may exist in sufficient concentration such that one or more of them could be an important co-product during any future mining of iron.
Vanadium
Vanadium is of particular interest as a potential co-product because in places its content is equivalent to about 0.22% V2O5. Thus, vanadium could be a significant co-product when the Rambling Creek iron deposit is mined.
Other Elements
Elevated contents of As, Mo, Sb and W indicate that there is potential for discovery of important auriferous zones associated with the Clear Hills iron deposits. In addition, because fumarolic hydrothermal activity appears to have been important at least locally during Bad Heart Formation time, potential exists for base- and precious-metal massive sulphide deposits. Finally, the presence of ‘diamond indicator mineral grains’ in places in the Bad Heart Formation and some other Late Cretaceous strata in northwestern Alberta, indicates potential exists for the discovery of diamondiferous ultramafic diatremes.
The report concluded there is a need for more extensive sampling and anayltical work of the Clear Hills iron deposits, and the Bad Heart Formation. This work should better evaluate the regional variations in lithochemistry of the Bad Heart Formation oolitic ironstone, and particularly whether some elements, other than iron, have potential to be important co-products in places. Because elevated contents of Fe, As, Co, Cr, Mo, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sb, V and W exist at the Rambling Creek area, future studies should perhaps be intially focused in this area.
Coal
Ironstone recognizes that coal is an important resource for both thermal energy and the beneficiation of mined iron ore.
The Alberta Energy & Utilities Board (Dec. 1993 Reserves of Coal Report) identifed an ‘initial in-place resource’ estimate of about 240 million tonnes of lignitic ‘A’ coal in two seams in late Late Cretaceous Wapiti Formation. There are several potential coal targets and these exist in sub-basins that are possibly separated by several known and inferred faults. The coal is believed to occur as stacked, discontinuous seams of varying quality.
Ironstone, in conjunction with its iron delineation drilling program, will explore for coal resources that are both of highest quality and largest in size, in addition to identifying where there is spatial overlap of both mineable ironstone and coal.
