Mineral reconnaissance of the Thule district, North-West Greenland

Abstract

In 1975 and 1977 field investigations of various possibIe commercial mineral deposits in North-West Greenland were carried out, with particular emphasis on an evaluation of the ilmenite-bearing beach sands. The earliest known notice of these was in 1916 when Lauge Koch sampled 'jærnsand' at 'Itivdlerk', which was found to be high-grade ilmenite sand (Ghisler & Thomsen, 1973). The location of 'Itivdlerk' is uncertain, but it may be the embayment Iterdlak 14 km east of Moriussaq, where black sands were found in our work. Various GGU reports have described the ilmenite sands and other possibIe commercial minerals (Ghisler & Thomsen, 1971, 1972, 1973; Dawes, 1975, 1976a, personal communications). The general geology of the area, and location of the principal prospects investigated are shown in Fig. 6. Analyses and evaluation of the samples and surveys are not yet complete, and the present conclusions are thus tentative.