The Vangorda deposit is a small (7.1 million tonne), SEDEX-type, Pb-Zn-Ag (barite) massive sulphide ore body, in the Anvil District, Yukon, Canada. The deposit is currently being open pit mined at aprroximately 13,000 tonnes per day by Curragh Inc. This paper illustrates the macroscopic deformational style of the Vangorda deposit. The deposit is deformed by four significant and one minor phase of deformation. Though there is a very good correlation in macroscopic structural style between the host phyllites and the sulphides, the Vangorda deposit has mesoscale textures that reflect extensive shearing of the orebody, especially in the baritic and pyrrhotitic massive sulphides.
The orientation and location of features such as faults, joints, and various foliations provide important information that can be used to help predict and assess pit wall stability, potential problems with water, location of road access to the active mining area, and to predict loading pattern and charge of blasts. Furthermore, an enhanced understanding of the location and orientation of folds and faults, and which are major and which minor, are of importance in grade control during mining.
