Integration of results from all project sub-components will be facilitated through application of GIS technologies. This project will specifically address the following key geoscience issues, each of which has important implications for mineral potential in the region 1. The belts are interpreted as primary stratigraphic domains, and the boundaries between them as facies transitions. Alternatively, the belts may be tectonic and the boundaries between them crustal-scale faults. Establishing the nature of the belts and their relations are important for understanding the stratigraphy of the terrane as a whole, and its mineral potential.
Ocean anoxia is important in the preservation of sea floor massive sulphide accumulations.
Although a relatively untested exploration target, Cache Creek contains rocks of the appropriate composition that were deposited during the end Permian anoxic event. Although there is consensus that these two terranes were juxtaposed by the Middle Jurassic, their relationship during the important Triassic and Early Jurassic interval is unclear. Prospective structures in the Atlin map area have yet to be dated and existing map data suggests additional crustal imbrication by unmapped faults. The largest ultramafic body in the Cordillera, the Nahlin ultramafite, as well as a large number of smaller ultramafic bodies are exposed within the Atlin project area. These ultramafic rocks may consist of cumulates and depleted mantle formed at an oceanic spreading center, or alternatively, they may underlie a series of guyots or oceanic plateaus.