Despite many years of exploration and relatively limited success, the Rusty Springs prospect retains considerable potential for a large-tonnage deposit. The property lies within the east-vergent Taiga-Nahoni fold belt, occurring in the core of a structural culmination exposing host dolostones of the Lower and Middle Devonian Ogilvie Formation. Mineralization occurs in stratabound and discordant zones along the contact with the overlying Devono-Mississippian unnamed shale. Various deposit models, ranging from Mississippi Valley-type to epithermal vein-type have been employed. Poor exposure and relatively deep weathering, resulting from the lack of Pleistocene glaciation, account for the lack of consensus with regard to genesis. Evidence points to the potential for a high-temperature, carbonate-hosted massive sulphide deposit (manto-chimney complex). The great extent of mineralized and altered rocks, together with their stratabound nature, significant thickness, local high grades, and potential for supergene enrichment, suggest that Rusty Springs remains an attractive drill-oriented exploration target.
