Summary

This two-year research project investigated the characteristics of volcano-plutonic architecture and associated porphyry- epithermal mineralization in the Taseko Lakes region, located in southwestern British Columbia. We integrated detailed geological, structural and alteration mapping, petrology, isotope geochemistry and geochronological analyses with the aim of developing a conceptual geological model for the structural and economic evolution of the area for the purpose and application of predictive exploration.

The project area is located within the Coast Belt, along the boundary between the Southeast Coast Belt and Southwest Coast Belt (Monger and Journeay, 1994). This area is located at the eastern limit of the Coast Plutonic Complex, and it is along this boundary that many Cu-Mo-Au showings are located in the southern Coast Belt (McLaren, 1990). This highly tectonized belt includes Paleozoic to mid-Mesozoic oceanic and volcanic arc rocks assigned to several different terranes, together with Late Middle Jurassic through mid-Cretaceous sedimentary rocks of the Tyaughton- Methow basin, Upper Cretaceous continental arc volcanic rocks of the Powell Creek formation and mid-Cretaceous to Tertiary intrusive rocks of the Coast Plutonic Complex (Schiarizza et. al., 1997).