An integrated study of geological, magnetic and electromagnetic data for mineral exploration in the Jameson Land Basin, central East Greenland

Sammanfattning: The Jameson Land Basin, located in central East Greenland, initiated in Devonian time with the collapse of the over-thickened Caledonian Orogen. The basin developed during different phases of rifting from the late Paleozoic to the Mesozoic and has accumulated between 16-18 km of sediments. In Paleogene time, the basin was affected by intense magmatism due to the opening of the North Atlantic Ocean c. 55 Ma ago. Due to a significant uplift in Miocene time, the sedimentary sequence is well exposed along the basin margins, revealing numerous mineral occurrences hosted within almost the entire stratigraphic succession. The major types of mineralization comprise: (1) intrusion-related Mo (± Pb, Zn, Cu, Ag) mineralization associated with Paleogene intrusive complexes; (2) stratabound and/or stratiform Cu, Pb, Zn, (Ag) within Upper Permian and Triassic clastic and marine sedimentary formations; (3) stratabound and structurally controlled Pb-Zn, Cu, Ba, (Sr) mineralization in Upper Permian carbonates; and (4) structurally-controlled Pb, Zn, Cu (±Sb, Bi, Ag, Au) vein-type mineralization within Caledonian and Paleozoic rocks.It is well acknowledged that structures such as faults, thrusts, detachments, shear zones and associated fracture systems play an important role as fluid conduits connecting metal sources and sites of mineral precipitation. In particular, previous studies showed that mineral occurrences within the East Greenland Caledonides are closely related to lineaments and intrusions. In this context, the Crusmid-3D project was initiated in 2014, aiming at establishing the links between the crustal structures and the mineral occurrences in the Jameson Land Basin using a combination of geological and geophysical data. The interest for mineral exploration in the area led exploration companies and institutions to carry out magnetic and electromagnetic surveys, and the data derived from these constitute the base of this study.This thesis provides a detailed structural interpretation of aeromagnetic data in the Jameson Land Basin where several magnetic trends associated with Tertiary dikes and sills as well as with reactivated Paleozoic and Triassic faults were delineated. These data, in combination with a literature review and compilation of the mineral occurrences in the Jameson Land Basin, allowed highlighting seven prospective areas for structurally-controlled base metal mineralization.New structural data from geological fieldwork, drilling results and geophysical data (magnetic, electromagnetic and seismic data) along the eastern margin of the basin allowed a new interpretation of the geometry of the Triassic rift in East Greenland, represented by NE-SW-trending basins and highs segmented by NW-SE-trending transfer zones. It can be correlated with its European conjugate margin, displaying analogies with the Triassic Froan and Helgeland Basins in the Norwegian offshore and with the Papa and West Shetlands Basins north of the Shetland Islands.The proposed structural model of the Triassic rift was further investigated using 3D-geologically-constrained inversion of magnetic data in order to refine the architecture of the eastern margin of the Jameson Land Basin. Modelling results confirmed the presence of a shallow westward dipping peneplained crystalline basement in the southern part of the area while the northern part is characterized by faulted blocks, which accommodated relatively thick red bed sedimentary sequences, thereby representing a good potential source of base metals.Furthermore, Induced Polarization (IP) effects observed in airborne time-domain electromagnetic data acquired in the eastern margin of the basin were investigated using Self-Organizing Maps (SOM). The analysis of the shape and amplitude of the transient response curves using the SOM allowed identifying four areas where the transient curve patterns exhibit strong IP effects. These are shown to be collocated with Tertiary sills and dikes, clay-altered rocks as well as with a sulfide-bearing brecciated granite and with Triassic stratigraphic horizons hosting disseminated base metal sulfides.