Alteration at Thor

Example of one of the many alteration maps that were produced in 2022/2023 examining alteration at Thor. Airborne geophysics is combined with ground spectrometry to shown the interactions of various rock units to mineral alteration.

Alteration mapping is a critical aspect of the exploration undertaken at Thor. In the summer of 2022, Taranis undertook a major exploration program that was designed to understand the hydrothermal alteration around the Thor epithermal deposit. Since many of the rocks at Thor are fine-grained, mineral identification using a hand lens is difficult, if not impossible.

A portable VIS/NIR/SWIR spectrometer was used to identify minerals that were characteristic of hydrothermal alteration around both epithermal and porphyry-type deposits. Tareanis completed over 2,000 measurements on surface and in drill holes that allowed it to gain much greater insight into the hydrothermal alteration. This data was combined with airborne geophysical data that graphically showed a very large hydrothermal alteration system that underlies the epithermal deposit.

In the image on the left, the location of samples with illite (yellow diamonds) and andalusite (white circles with green diamonds) is compared. The magnetic anomaly under the Thor deposit is shown in warm colors, and the airborne conductive anomalies are shown in brown. The Thor epithermal deposit is shown in grey.

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