Substantial additional drilling is needed to determine the combined total tonnage of the North Lik and South Lik deposits. Preliminary estimates by GCO indicate that the Lik deposit could be North America's second largest zinc deposit after Red Dog (ARDF number DL001). The sulfides are extremely fine-grained. Cominco Alaska acquired Echo Bay's interest in Lik in early 1999.
Location: The Lik prospect is at an elevation of about 1,000 feet in the headwaters of east-flowing tributaries to Wulik River. The map site is at the boundary of sections 14 and 15, T. 32 N., R. 20 W., of the Kateel River Meridian. The property is also referrred to as the SU prospect.
Geology: The Lik prospect is a black, carbonaceous shale- and chert-hosted, volcanogenic exhalative, massive, Pb-Zn-Ag sulfide deposit. The deposit strikes northeast and dips about 30 degrees west. The sulfide horizons are thinly bedded, stratiform and confined to carbonaceous shale and chert. The ore consists of fine- to very fine-grained, sulfides in thin bands or massive lenses which occur discontinuously along strike for over a kilometer. The dominant sulfides are pyrite, marcasite, sphalerite and minor galena. Pyrite accounts for about 50% of the sulfides. Barite is also reported. In silver-rich zones, boulangerite and bournonite appear as exsolution blebs in galena. There are three types of sulfide mineralization in the Lik deposit. The most common type consists of thinly-banded, fine-grained sulfides in black shales that occur in the lowest portion of the section. The second type consists of lenses of massive sulfide, quartz, and barite higher in the section. The third type consists of vein and breccia sulfide deposits stratigraphically below the massive sulfide lenses. The Lik deposit is hosted by a sequence of black shales, black cherts, calcareous black shales and occasional calcareous sandstones. The sequence grades upward from the foot-wall of the deposit through the mineralized zone into an oxidized zone without any apparent depositional hiatus. The hanging-wall of the deposit consists of Permian-Triassic, thick-bedded, gray-green cherts and siliceous mudstones. The Permian-Triassic strata either grade downward into black shales or rest directly on the massive sulfides. The Permian-Triassic rocks are overlain by the severely-sheared sole of an overriding, Upper Cretaceous thrust sheet. Complex folding and disrupted bedding are commonly found in the banded sulfides. The deposit is divided into two parts, North Lik and South Lik, which are offset from each other by a fault. A drill hole in the North Lik deposit had a 174.5 foot intercept of ore containing 8.9% Zn, 3.5% Pb, and 2.3 ounces silver per ton (J. Britton, oral communication, 1998).
Workings: Discovered in 1977, the deposit was explored by more than 125 drill holes in the early 1990's.
Age: Potassium-argon dating indicates that the mineralization is Late Mississippian in age.
Alteration: Host rocks are intensely silicified close to the sulfides.
Reserves: The Lik deposit contains reserves of 25 million tons of ore grading 12% combined Pb-Zn and 1.5 ounces silver per ton (Sterne and others, 1984).

Commodities (Major) - Ag, Pb, Zn; (Minor) - Ba, Cd
Development Status: None
Deposit Model: Sedimentary exhalative Zn-Pb (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 31a).

Shale-hosted Zn-Pb-Ag deposit.
Located in Northern Alaska (North Slope Borough? Northwest Arctic Borough?).

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Commodity List

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Mineral List

7 valid minerals.