Melissa: Geology and Minerals

Mineralization
The center of the project are small outcrops with hydrothermal alterations, most of the outcrops are covered with alluvial material and gravel. The visible outcrops show breccias, shearing and sheeted quartz veins with hematite.

The outcrops that were mapped showed a strong alteration pattern of veinlets and fractured filling with hematite (specularite) which is generally oxidized into hematitic limonite.

Local Geology
There are two types of mineralization; the first type consists of a replacement system within the limestone by hematite and quartz. The second type, which is the most important and dominant, are breccias and shear zones within the sandstones. The shear zones exhibit an external zonation of manganese oxides that have a patchy texture and the centre portion of these shear zones show fracture filling with hematite (specularite) and quartz. Near the main working, visible gold was observed within samples where the rock was crushed for panning purposes.

The mineralization is mostly associated with veinlets and fracture filling comprised of hematite, quartz, jarosite and alunite (both being potassic sulfates). There is very little fresh pyrite. The quartz veining can be classified into two types: the first type being of segregation, the second type being of open-space filling texture.

Structural Geology
The sandstones are generally more fragile than the limestones thus show more of a brecciated and fractured textures, whereas the limestones will exhibit a more ductile type of deformation: near the major faults they will show some folding rather than brecciation or fracturation.

The fracturation and injection of veinlets will often exhibit a preferred orientation and show a shetted vein system and shear zones textures. The shear zones are usually oriented at N020° with a vertical dip. The thrust faults and reverse faults usually show a NNW orientation.