The Assessing Groundwater in the Whitehorse Area (AGWA) project is a multi-disciplinary study of groundwater chemistry in the City of Whitehorse and how that chemistry is controlled by interactions with bedrock geology and historic mining operations in the Whitehorse Copper Belt. Groundwater sampling has identified uranium as a local metal of concern. Within the research team, Alexandre Guillerez, a M.Sc. student co-supervised by Dr. Joel Cubley (Yukon University) and Dr. Elliott Skierszkan (Carleton University) is characterizing the uranium distribution within mineral phases in bedrock units, conducting detailed thin section petrography as well as mineral chemical analysis using electron microprobe and synchrotron techniques. In addition, Alex is performing leach testing to determine how the uranium may be mobilized under specific environmental conditions (fluid pH, temperature, redox), and in the presence of certain dissolved constituents that may impact uranium solubility. An understanding of the geologic source rock for uranium is critical to interpreting groundwater geochemistry data and making conclusions about the potential relative impacts of anthropogenic activity.
Alex sampling magnetite skarn at the Big Chief copper showing in the Whitehorse Copper Belt.