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Permeability Testing of Drill Core from Basement Rocks in the Fault-Hosted Gryphon U Deposit (Eastern Athabasca Basin, Canada): Insights into Fluid–Rock Interactions Related to Deposit Formation and Redistribution

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Abstract

Fluid percolation conditions in fault zones are often inferred in geologic studies, but the porosity and permeability of rocks are rarely tested during mineral exploration drilling. Routine permeability and porosity tests on drill core, with adequate detection limits and accuracy, can provide new insights into present- and paleo-fluid flow processes and deposit formation in sedimentary basins and permeable fault zones (e.g. uranium deposits, sub-sea hydrothermal ore deposits). In this study, geological and hydrogeological observations were combined with results of over a thousand permeability tests at spot-on unconfined drill core, extracted along transects through the Gryphon U deposit and fault zone, using a pressure-decay N2 gas probe with adequate seal to the rock surface. The new seal method allowed a wide range of permeability determinations under field conditions (over 5 × 10–20 to 10–12 m2). The penetrative macropore networks were observed directly from gas discharge patterns on drill core surfaces. For the tested crystalline basement rocks below the Athabasca Basin, we inferred that the matrix permeability and porosity distribution appear to be preserved since the late Paleoproterozoic/Mesoproterozoic, under the cover of a sedimentary basin. The permeability values at the present time, and the patterns of rock alteration and deformation, offer insights to paleo-hydrogeological conditions. The gneissic and pegmatitic host rocks have relatively low permeability at present time, except fractured (discrete flow channels) and/or intensely altered to a more porous rock. The alternating zones of silicification and desilicification appear to pre-date the intense argillic alteration, and it may have been a result of earlier hydrothermal activity. The Gryphon U deposit occurs in elongated narrow “lenses” along several fault strands of a fault zone (below the unconformity surface and within basement rocks). U-ore is a cementing mineral in fault-related fractures and fault rocks, but remnant flow channels in fractures in U-ore are still preserved. The most permeable and porous fault rocks are coarse gouges (~ 40% porosity, ~ 10–15 m2 permeability) with approximately three orders of magnitude higher rock matrix permeability than the gneissic host rocks. Such fault rocks locally contain carbonaceous matter, and similar fault rocks may have been preferentially mineralized by U to form the U ore lenses, but the role of brittle-ductile and ductile fault and shear zone rocks in U mineralization is not yet clear at Gryphon. Our review of U–Pb uraninite ages at Gryphon suggests a protracted faulting and U-mineralization history. In response to numerous episodic events of brittle deformation and hydrothermal alteration, the permeability and porosity of the host rocks and U-ores have evolved, as observed by multiple cross-cutting reaction fronts. We inferred from the test results and the alteration halo at the U deposit, affecting a wide part of the fault zone, that the permeability and porosity increased by the downward ingress of U-rich acidic basinal brine that percolated into the basement-hosted (rooted) shear/fault zone and nearby crystalline basement rocks. However, the younger prominent U roll/redox-fronts caused local-scale reduction in porosity and permeability by hematite cementation.

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Data Availability

The data sets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available in the Figshare repository, https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12365984.v2.

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Acknowledgments

The first author thanks Dr. Gleeson (U. Victoria) and Dr. McKenzie (McGill U.) for support. This work could not be done without help and support of Denison Mines. Geologists Dale Verran and Clark Gamelin provided comments on the early manuscript. Special thanks are to Dr. Bethune (U. Regina) for multiple and detailed reviews of this work and many suggestions for improvement of text and figures, many helpful edits and important questions. The manuscript was completed over a year while visiting for research at Kyoto University, Japan. Additional helpful comments about the permeability test methods were provided by Dr. Kubo, Dr. Koike, and Dr. Kashiwaya.

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  1. Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill University, 3450 University Street, Montreal, QC, H3A 0E8, Canada

    Jacek Scibek

  2. ENSG, Universite de Lorraine, 2 rue du Doyen Marcel Roubault, TSA 70605, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, 54518, France

    Irvine R. Annesley

  3. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5E2, Canada

    Irvine R. Annesley

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  1. Jacek Scibek
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Correspondence to Jacek Scibek.

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Scibek, J., Annesley, I.R. Permeability Testing of Drill Core from Basement Rocks in the Fault-Hosted Gryphon U Deposit (Eastern Athabasca Basin, Canada): Insights into Fluid–Rock Interactions Related to Deposit Formation and Redistribution. Nat Resour Res 30, 2909–2956 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11053-021-09811-x

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