Balmer/Ball sequence of rocks are under-explored in Rice Lake area.
- Modern exploration techniques are underutilized in these areas (I.P., geochemical).
- Diamond drilling has been restricted to shallow holes.

* Wanipigow Fault is a major crustal “break”
* Similar to Porcupine-Destor and Larder-Cadillac “breaks” in the Timmins and Kirkland Lake gold camps.
* Presents significant targets for gold mineralization
- Rice Lake area is potential “Elephant Country” with >200 gold showings and small past producers to be re-evaluated.
Site History
In 1900 J.B. Tyrell of the Geological Survey of Canada published a report that indicated that the Bissett area had potential for gold mineralization. It was not till March 1911 that E.A Pelletier who was prospecting became interested in the area while working for the Royal North West Mounted Police. It is thought that he was introduced to Duncan Twohearts who took him to the shores of Rice Lake where they found a boulder of quartz that had pure gold within. It was after this find that the first claims were staked in the area. This event was followed by prospecting and staking in the surrounding region, leading to small scale gold production by 1916 from the Gold Pan property southeast of Rice Lake.

Exploration was carried out but it was not until 1922 when J.A Reid's work stimulated enough interest to form the Wanipigow Syndicate. Underground development was started and by 1927 Wanipigow Mines Ltd. was incorporated. The first gold brick was poured at the site of the Poundmaker mine, in 1923 which came from a 2 compartment shaft and small stamp mill. Prospecting activity spread to the Beresford lake area with the commencement of gold production by Central Manitoba Mines Ltd. in 1927 which continued for 10 years.

At this time Bissett was a very remote location. The site was the first in all of Manitoba to use float planes to carry in passengers. Although most if not all supplies were transported across Lake Winnipeg and then up the Wanipigow river.

By this time other operations were running in the Bissett region. In 1929 investment was reduced due to the crash of the stock markets. 13 mines have operated within the Bissett camp in addition to this many small exploration shafts have been sunk. The most famous mine in the camp - the San Antonio - has had a long history. This deposit is one of the Provinces' most important gold mines and after 36 years of continuous production which ceased in 1968, had yielded 41,519 kg (1,334, 892 oz) of gold and 5978 kg (192,205 oz) silver. Production by several subsequent owners increased the total gold extracted to approximately 1.5 million ounces of gold. One gold specimen from the mine contains an estimated 5.41 kg of gold, it is currently housed in the Natural Museum of natural Sciences in Ottawa.

Bissett Geology

The region is part of the great Superior Province, a terrane of large granitic masses separated by greenstone belts, which consist of rocks of volcanic and sedimentary origin. The greenstone belt in this case is the Rice Lake greenstone belt, which hosts numerous deposits and occurrences of gold, but few significant occurrences of base metals. The same is true of the nearest similar body to the east: the Red Lake greenstone belt. The greenstone belts contain two groups of supracrustal (volcanic and sedimentary) rocks, one older and one younger. The older group is termed "Mesoarchean", and radiometric dating has established that the rocks of this group are 2.85 to 3.0 Ga years old. The younger group is termed "Neoarchean", and its age has been pegged at 2.73 - 2.69 Ga. Most of the surrounding granitic rocks have ages similar to the Neoarchean rock sequences, although there are some "basement rocks" with ages of about 3.0 Ga or older. The distinction between Mesoarchean and Neoarchean supracrustal rocks is relatively recent, and has come about through U-Pb dating since 1995.

The division of the Superior province into greenstone belts and intervening granitic masses has also been modified in recent years. The Rice Lake greenstone belt, in Manitoba, together with the Red Lake, Bee Lake, and Pickle Lake greenstone belts, in Ontario, form the Uchi subprovince. The Uchi subprovince is elongated in an east-west direction, and the same is true of the Rice Lake greenstone belt. It is bounded on the north by granitic rocks of the North Caribou Terrane and on the south by metasedimentary and plutonic rocks of the English River subprovince. The English River metasedimentary rocks are coarse-grained, highly metamorphosed and partially melted rocks that have traditionally not been considered greenstones.

The formation of the Rice Lake greenstone belt has been ably summed up in a single line: "Recent studies indicate a complex sequence of development for the belt: 1) 3.0 Ga granitoid basement rocks north of the Wanipigow River; 2) unconformably overlain by ca. 2.9 Ga platformal sedimentary rocks and possible rift sequence mafic volcanic rocks (Wallace Lake and Garner Lake subgroups); 3) followed by juxtaposition of 2.7 Ga arc volcanic rocks of the Bidou Lake and Gem Lake subgroups; and 4) overlain by basinal sediments (Edmunds Lake formation) deposited during the Kenoran orogeny" (Corkery, 1999, p. 11). The 3.0 Ga granitoid basement rocks referred to above occur within the North Caribou terrane. The Wallace Lake and Garner Lake subgroups are geographically separated, but very similar, Mesoarchean sequences of volcanic and sedimentary rocks. The Bidou Lake subgroup, Gem Lake subgroup, and Edmunds Lake formation are Neoarchean sequences of volcanic and sedimentary rocks. (The term "assemblage" is currently preferred over the terms "subgroup" and "formation", which imply formal stratigraphic rank and status.)

Several Mesoarchean assemblages have now been recognized: the Lewis-Storey assemblage, the Wanipigow North and Little Beaver assemblages, the Wallace assemblage, and the Garner assemblage (Bailes et al., 2003). The Lewis-Storey assemblage, which occurs along the shores of Lake Winnipeg, has been recognized as being very similar to the Wallace assemblage to the east (Bailes and Percival, 2000). The same is true of the Wanipigow North and Little Beaver assemblages, which occur between the Wallace and Lewis-Storey assemblages. The Wallace assemblage occurs at Wallace Lake and consists of: 1) the Conley formation, which is largely a shallow-water, platformal, sedimentary sequence; 2) the Overload Bay formation, a sequence of sheet basalts which includes some komatiitic flows; and 3) the Big Island formation, a sequence of pillow basalts. (Inclusion of the Big Island pillow basalts in the Wallace assemblage is a conclusion derived from an in-house study by MacQuarrie, 2003; the position of this unit was previously considered unknown.) The Garner assemblage occurs east of Beresford Lake and north and south of Garner Lake. It consists of felsic to mafic volcanic flows, mafic flows, ultramafic flows, and banded iron formation. In the future, geochemical and other geological work may succeed in uniting some or all of these Mesoarchean assemblages.

The Neoarchean assemblages that have now been recognized fall into two groupings: oceanic volcanic sequences, and sedimentary sequences. The assemblages of first grouping, which appear to have 2.75 - 2.72 Ga ages, include: the Mayville assemblage, the Bidou assemblage, the Black Island assemblage, and the Gem and Bee assemblages. Those of the second, sedimentary grouping, which appear to have 2.70 - 2.69 Ga ages include the Edmunds assemblage, the Manigotagan and English River assemblages, the San Antonio assemblage, the Siderock assemblage, the Guano Island assemblage, and the Hole River assemblage.

Of the Neoarchean oceanic volcanic assemblages, the Bidou assemblage is the most important in terms of area of exposure it forms the dominant component of the Rice Lake greenstone belt. In the area east of the Ross River pluton it consists of a lower unit of tholeiitic basalt and an upper unit of calc-alkaline felsic to intermediate volcaniclastic rocks. Near Bissett, west of the Ross River pluton, it consists entirely of calc-alkaline felsic to intermediate volcaniclastic rocks. The Black Island assemblage, at Lake Winnipeg, also consists of a lower unit of tholeiitic basalt (Gray Point) and an upper unit of felsic to intermediate volcaniclastic and volcanic rocks (Drumming Point). The Black Island assemblage has been very well characterized, both chemically and geologically (Bailes and Percival, 2000). The Gem and Bee assemblages, which occur southeast of the Ross River pluton, likewise consist of tholeiitic basalts together with felsic volcaniclastic rocks. However, geochronological work indicates that the entirety of the Gem and Bee assemblages is about ten million years younger than the Bidou assemblage.

The Neoarchean sedimentary assemblages include a major unit from outside the Rice Lake greenstone belt, namely, the highly metamorphosed and migmatized pelitic sedimentary rocks of the Manigotagan and English River assemblages. These rocks are believed to be equivalent to the much less metamorphosed Edmunds assemblage. The Edmunds assemblage consists of thinly bedded turbidites of varying degrees of coarseness (mudstone, siltstone, greywacke, and minor conglomerate). The assemblage is believed to have been deposited in deep narrow basins at an early stage of the Kenoran orogeny. A direct age has not been established, but the assemblage must be a little younger than 2.704 Ga, because it contains detrital zircons of that date.

The remaining Neoarchean sedimentary assemblages all consist of coarser grained clastic sedimentary rocks. The San Antonio assemblage consists of quartz arenite and conglomerate, the Siderock assemblage of conglomerate and arkose, the Guano Island assemblage of arkose and conglomerate, and the Hole River assemblage also of arkose and conglomerate. The San Antonio assemblage, near the town of Bissett, unconformably lies atop rocks of the Bidou assemblage. The conglomeratic assemblages all have post-2.705 Ga ages (like the Edmunds assemblage), and may have all been deposited in similar tectonic circumstances, at an early stage of the Kenoran orogeny.

The plutonic rocks of the Rice Lake greenstone belt are mostly large masses of granodioritic or tonalitic rock of different ages. There are "basement" rocks, gneissic intrusions with ages greater than 3.0 Ga, Mesoarchaean intrusions with ages of about 2.85 Ga, older Neoarchean intrusions with ages of about 2.72 Ga and younger, "synorogenic" Neoarchean intrusions with ages of about 2.70 Ga. The older intrusions, those that belong to the first two groups, are confined to the North Caribou Terrane, north of the Rice Lake greenstone belt. The North Caribou Terrane also includes a high proportion of intrusions that belong to the third, 2.72 Ga, group, in particular, the Wanipigow River Plutonic Complex. The Wanipigow River Plutonic Complex is of batholithic size, and may represent an Andean continental margin magmatic arc. The center of the Rice Lake greenstone belt is occupied by a large pluton, the Ross River pluton that also belongs to the 2.72 Ga group. The Ross River pluton is therefore about the same age as the felsic volcaniclastic rocks that it intrudes (the Bidou assemblage), and it appears to be cogenetic.

Almost all of the deformation of the Rice Lake greenstone belt took place after the early Neoarchean volcanism and the great pulse of plutonism at about 2.72 Ga. It appears to have begun very shortly afterwards, at about 2.715 Ga, so that the beginning predates the phase of late Neoarchean sedimentation. Bailes et al. (2003) recognize a belt-wide early phase of deformation, D1, which began before sedimentation and continued during sedimentation. They also recognize a second phase of deformation, D2, which consists of east-trending upright open folds, and a third phase, D3, which is marked by east-trending dextral faults such as the Wanipigow fault.

The deformational history may, however, be more complex than that. The most recent structural geology study in the Rice Lake greenstone belt that in the Garner Lake area by Anderson (2003), distinguishes six deformational phases: D1 to D6. The first five reflect ductile deformation, and the last, ductile to brittle deformation. Even the earliest of these, D1, affects the youngest Neoarchean rocks, so that it does not appear to be exactly equivalent to the earliest phase of deformation, also called D1, recognized by Bailes et al (2003). Rather, Anderson's D1, together with D2 to D5, appear to be equivalent to just one deformational phase recognized by Bailes et al., namely, D2. Anderson's D6 is readily recognized as being equivalent to D3 of Bailes et al, and it reflects development of major strike-slip faults. In terms of major tectonic events, Anderson's D1 to D5 would correspond to the major crust-building era, the Kenoran Orogeny, and D6 to the Shabandawanian Orogeny.

The Rice Lake greenstone belt and its equivalent in Ontario, the Red Lake greenstone belt, are important Archean lode gold mining areas (Figure 4). There are more than 200 gold occurrences in the Rice Lake greenstone belt, most of them associated with quartz-veining in Neoarchean rocks, and therefore with phases of brittle deformation. However, the quartz-veining may not all be associated with development of the major strike-slip faults. Some of it may be earlier, taking place shortly after the country-rocks were formed, and some of it may be later. Bailes et al. (2003) note a significant difference between the age of the gold-bearing country-rocks in the Red Lake greenstone belt and that in the Rice Lake greenstone belt: "In the Red Lake greenstone belt gold mineralization is most abundant in Mesoarchean volcanic assemblages rather than in in Neoarchean assemblages as is typical in the Rice Lake greenstone belt. This may in part be an artifact of the relative absence of exploration in the Mesoarchean assemblages in the Rice Lake greenstone belt."

"Of the fifteen formerly producing deposits ... eleven, including the San Antonio deposit ..., are hosted by massive mafic intrusive and/or extrusive rock units; three including the Ogama-Rockland Mine ... are hosted by quartz diorite, and one, the Elora deposit ... is hosted by greywacke.... The San Antonio, Central Manitoba ... and Gunnar mines were the most important gold producers in the Rice Lake greenstone belt... Although the association with mafic intrusive rocks (and extrusive rocks) is prominent throughout the Rice Lake belt minor gold mineralization does occur within sedimentary rocks units. At Wallace Lake, strata bound disseminated gold mineralization at the Gatlan occurrence is hosted by argillaceous quartz wacke (Gaba, 1984)" Richardson et al., 1996.