Potassium-Argon Ages of Some Ore Deposits in British Columbia

CIM Bulletin, 1968

Of twenty-one ore deposits in British Columbia which are either in production or advanced stages of exploration, five have potassium-argon ages in a range of 165-205 m.y., eight are in a range of 44-55 m.y. and the remainder are either ca. 140 m.y. or ca. 100 m.y. old. Deposits of the oldest group have generally similar geological environments and radiometrically indistinguishable ages of magmatic and hydrothermal minerals. Deposits of the youngest group also have similar geological environments, with successive magmatic and hydrothermal events closely intermingled in time and place. Such deposits find no comfortable home in existing classifications of ore deposits. 1t is suggested, therefore, that those epigenetic deposits which can be shown by radiometric and/ or geologic means to be coeval with genetically related magmatism be designated as "paramagmatic deposits."

Keywords: Biotite, biotite, diorite, quartz monzonite, Southwestern British Columbia, University of British Columbia, copper, Deposits, Mine, Mines, quartz, Rock, Rocks