Ring of Fire Geology: An Overview

Geology for Investors published an overview of Ontario’s Ring of Fire. It looks at the region’s geology and outlines issues with infrastructure, also touching on which companies are currently working there.

It ends with a brief outline of why development is stalled in the Ring of Fire.

Here’s what the publication says about the area’s geology:

The Ring of Fire chromite and nickel-copper-PGE deposits are found within the crescent-shaped McFaulds Lakegreenstone belt.

This crescent shape is influenced by a huge intrusion of granite to the west. Mapping and interpretation of geophysical surveys suggest that the belt wraps around the intrusion to form a distinctive semi-circular magnetic anomaly dubbed the ‘Ring of Fire’. And yes, the geologist who named it was a Johnny Cash fan!

This belt is made up of dark-coloured, coarse-grained igneous rocksthat are Precambrian in age, about 2,700 million years old. These rocks are low in silica but rich in iron and magnesium and are made of mostly olivine and other dark-coloured high temperature minerals, such as pyroxene.

The rocks in this complex have a distinctive shape below the surface too. They formed as sills: tabular, flat-lying sheets of igneous rock intruded into existing layers in the crust.

Click here to read the full Geology for Investors report.