Parbec Deposit

The Parbec property is located on the contact between the Abitibi and Pontiac subprovinces, separated by the Cadillac–Larder-Lake Deformation Zone (CLLDZ). The Abitibi Subprovince is an Archean greenstone belt which hosts some of the richest mineral deposits of the Superior Province whose total endowment, including Production, Reserves and Resources is estimated to be > 9,375 t Au (Dubé and Mercier-Langevin, 2020).

The Parbec property is favourably situated within the Malartic Val d’Or gold mining camp of northwestern Quebec.  It is located in close proximity to former gold producers such as the East Malartic and Barnat mines.

The main mineralized zones occur throughout a series of stratigraphically continuous mafic lapilli tuff horizons lying south of the northern contact of the Cadillac Break and within fractured, quartz veined and silicified areas of the dioritic and feldspar-porphyry intrusive bodies.  Mineralization has also been noted in silicified, brecciated and bleached sections of the greywacke along the southern contact of the Break.  Further indications of mineralization occurring along the sheared northern contact of the volcanic sequence may represent a major splay fault off of the main Cadillac Break.

The mineralized tuff horizons have been correlated east and west of the Camp Zone Area along a strike length of approximately 600 m.  The average width of the mineralized zones is 1.9 m.  The bulk of mineralization intersected by drilling is contained in the Camp Zone area, over a strike length of 150 m and to a depth of 150 m and within the Discovery Zone area over a strike length of approximately 90 m to a depth of 90 m.

Parbec is considered prospective for orogenic gold deposits, typical of Archean greenstone belts. These deposits are usually controlled by crustal-scale shear zones like the Cadillac Break and feature gold-bearing quartz-carbonate veins hosted in both ductile and brittle structural zones. Mineralization often occurs in proximity to felsic intrusives and may be influenced by the chemical or mechanical properties of the host rocks.

Gold at Parbec is typically associated with pyrite and occurs in silicified or chloritic halos around quartz-carbonate veins, as well as in biotitized zones along the Cadillac Break. Mineralization is found within schists, intrusives like fractured and quartz-veined diorites, and the competent parts of the Piché Volcanics. Coarse gold has been noted in some areas. The Cadillac Break hosts the main Parbec deposit, but gold also occurs in the Piché Volcanics to the north and, more recently discovered, in Pontiac sediments to the south.

The deposit shares features with several nearby camps, including Barnat and East Malartic in the Malartic field, and Lapa and East Amphi. The Canadian Malartic deposit, part of the same trend, also exhibits mineralization that extends well into the Pontiac Group, suggesting a model where intrusive rocks play a central role in controlling broad, low-grade gold halos suitable for open-pit mining. This analogy supports the exploration model at Parbec, where gold mineralization could extend significantly beyond the Cadillac Break and into the surrounding units.