Gold Occurrences in Labrador

The Torngat Mountains of northern Labrador
Photo by Gierdzep

Politically Newfoundland and Labrador are one province of Canada their geological histories are so different that we have decided to treat them as separate entities.  Throughout most of geological time Labrador has been part of the Canadian Shield with some of its far north disturbed by a fairly recent orogeny that raised the Torngat Mountains.  The Torngats are in Quebec, Labrador and a small pert is in Nunavut.  Geologically they are considered the Artic Cordillera with the highest mountain being Mt. Caubvick at 1,652 m (5,420 ft.)  Geographically Labrador contains some of the wildest land on the East Coast of North America to the point it even lacks a trans-Labrador highway.  It is also little explored even though it is known to contain gold.

Labrador in cells contains very few known gold deposits that are more a function of the lack of exploration rather than the fact that gold isn't there. You will find most of the gold in Labrador Inuit southwest corner where it butts up against Quebec.  This is where they build a railroad From Sept Isles Quebec to Labrador city to transport iron from the mines there and Shefferville Quebec. Gold is often associated with iron mines.

There are many geochemical anomalies of gold phoned him the Archean Nain Province where it is associated with strong iron carbonate alteration of the Florence Lake greenstone belt and in quartz base metal veins at the Aucoin showing.  The superior province also contains several areas that show minor gold mineralization where the northern occurrences are associated with metamorphosed iron deposits in the southern ones with pyrite-pyrrhotote-arsenopyrite veining in mafic and metasedimentary gneisses. Gold is also found in the eastern Makkovik province where it occurs as small being hosted the positives in quartz. These are found in felsic volcanic rocks at Poiniadluk Point.  In the southeastern Churchill Province gold is found that the VBE-2 prospect where it is located in the Tasuyak metasedimentary gneiss that contained up to 5.5 grams per tone located in sulfide-graphite rich layers.

Gold is often found associated with greenstone belts that extend across the Archean all the way from Wawa Ontario to past Chibougamau Quebec.  This is such wild country that it has never been thoroughly explored for gold and it is likely that the Abitibi Greenstone Belt extends eastwards into Labrador.

During the mid-1800s my great-grandfather prospected for gold in Labrador where he found enough to make my great-grandmother's wedding ring. Some prospecting was done as early as 1870.