Thinking back to my posts in June, blathering on about the failed continental rift around Lake Nipigon, while I wasn't bang on so far, I also wasn't abysmally wrong. My best guess has been about the hypothesized shallow sea and hydrothermal events. I can say this now because a few more pieces of the puzzle have been revealed to us.

Here is a quote from "Natural Resources Canada" and our latest learning curve, the Banded Iron Formation and associated malachite ( which is mostly copper, hence the green colour). From what I can tell, so far, ( and I haven't put a lot of thought into it yet), this type of deposit is sedimentary, but it seems to be leading to more magmatic and intrusion type deposits as it moves to what would have possibly been inland from the sea a billion or so years ago... ( Elmhirst, Lynx, Onoman???). Leaves the door open to consider an ophiolite-hosted deposit as well, for some of the properties Sage has.

Iron oxide copper-gold (IOCG) deposits encompass a wide spectrum of sulphide-deficient low-Ti magnetite and/or hematite ore bodies of hydrothermal origin where breccia, veins, disseminations and massive lenses with polymetallic enrichments (Cu, Au, Ag, U, rare-earths, Bi, Co, Nb, P) are genetically associated with, but either proximal or distal to large-scale continental, A- to I-type magmatism, alkaline-carbonatite stocks, and crustal-scale fault zones and splays. The deposits are characterized by more than 20% iron oxides. Their lithological hosts and ages are non-diagnostic but their alteration zones are, with calcic-sodic regional alteration superimposed by focused potassic and iron oxide alterations. The deposits form at shallow to mid crustal levels in extensional, anorogenic or orogenic, continental settings such as intracratonic and intra-arc rifts, continental magmatic arcs and back-arc basins. Margins of Archean craton where arcs and successor arcs were developed appear to be particularly fertile.

Though there is no producing mine of this deposit type in Canada, exploration is accelerating and focuses on a series of prospective Proterozoic settings of the Canadian Shield and the Cordillera, as well as Phanerozoic settings in the Appalachian orogen (Fig. 1). These prospective mineral districts, including the Wernecke Breccia in Yukon, share some of the hallmarks of the 3810 Mt Olympic Dam deposit in Australia, the deposit that guides most mineral exploration worldwide (Hitzman et al., 1992; Western Mining Corporation, 2004).

Here's the link for anyone wanting to read it in its entirety..( that makes longbomb and who else??? LOL!)

http://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/mindep/metall...