The Duck Pond tin prospect is a vein- and strata-bound cassiterite prospect that is located 2 km west of the East Kemptville open-pit tin mine in southwestern Nova Scotia. The host rocks of the Duck Pond prospect are interbedded metawacke and meta-argillite that belong to the transition unit of the Meguma Group. These rocks contain quartz, sericite, chlorite, hematite, rutile, manganese oxides, feldspar, and porphyroblastic garnet, but not detrital cassiterite. The prospect is structurally controlled and contains several cross-cutting vein sets that have alkalic, chloritic, or argillic alteration assemblages. Muscovite is the main indicator mineral for alkalic alteration and occurs in veins that contain anorthoclase or quartz. Cassiterite is associated with chloritic alteration and occurs as subhedral to euhedral grains, acicular needles, and colloform layers in veins in meta-argillite and as strata-bound disseminations in metawacke. Most cassiterite precipitated under externally buffered conditions with respect to oxygen. Fe, Cu, Zn, and As sulphide minerals and quartz were deposited during argillic alteration. Late-stage processes such as recrystallization, sulphidation, and oxidation also occurred. Chalcopyrite is replaced by bornite and covellite; pyrite is replaced by marcasite.Unlike the F-rich East Kemptville deposit, fluorine-rich and tin-sulphide minerals are not present in the Duck Pond prospect. Trace tourmaline, absent at East Kemptville, is found at Duck Pond. However, the source of tin-mineralizing fluids at Duck Pond and East Kemptville was likely the granitic magma of the Davis Lake complex, which also hosts the East Kemptville deposit. From the mineral assemblages and textural relationships, it appears that as the temperature dropped from 425–405 °C to less than 200 °C at Duck Pond, the pH dropped from 5.2 to no lower than 3. Log [Formula: see text] dropped from at least −19 to −43. Log [Formula: see text] rose from < −15 to > −10. Cassiterite precipitated at the higher ends of the temperature and pH ranges and the lower end of the log [Formula: see text] range.
Mineral Physicochemistry Underlying Feature-Based Extraction of Mineral Abundance and Composition from Shortwave, Mid and Thermal Infrared Reflectance Spectra