| Hoidas Lake | |
|---|---|
  Hoidas Lake Location in Saskatchewan Show map of Saskatchewan Hoidas Lake Hoidas Lake (Canada) Show map of Canada | |
| Location | Northern Saskatchewan Administration District |
| Coordinates | 59°55′41″N107°49′12″W / 59.928°N 107.820°W /59.928; -107.820 |
| Part of | Mackenzie River drainage basin |
| Basin countries | Canada |
| Max. length | 3.7 km (2.3 mi) |
| Surface area | 180.5 ha (446 acres) |
| Shore length1 | 11 km (6.8 mi) |
| Surface elevation | 451 m (1,480 ft) |
| Settlements | None |
| 1 Shore length isnot a well-defined measure. | |
Hoidas Lake is a small, remote northern lake in theCanadian province ofSaskatchewan.[1][2] It is about 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) south of the Saskatchewan–Northwest Territories border and 50 kilometres (31 mi) north ofUranium City in the Tazin River watershed.[3] Named in honour of Irvin Frank Hoidas, aRoyal Canadian Air Force pilot officer killed in action during theSecond World War when hisStirling W-7520 crashed near the Belgian town ofSint-Truiden,[4][5] it is the site of Canada's most advancedrare-earth element (REE)mining project.[6]
Hoidas Lake lies in theNorthern Rae Geological Province, in the general vicinity of many of Saskatchewan's largeuranium mines.
Themineralogy of the Hoidas Lake rare-earth deposit differs from most other such deposits in that it is hosted inveins ofapatite andallanite.[7] Hoidas Lake also differs from other deposits in that it contains a significant amount of heavy rare-earth elements, such asdysprosium. This abundance of heavy REEs is significant, as there is a growing demand for the heavier rare earths in high-tech manufacturing (such as the use of dysprosium in the manufacturing ofhybrid car components).[8][9] Mineralization is presumablyhydrothermal, from an alkali orcarbonatitic source at depth.[10]
The main prospective zone is composed of two dominant rock types: a variably deformedmonzogranite and agranodioritic totonaliticgneiss. Both arePaleoproterozoic toArchean in age.[11]
Ongoing work at Hoidas Lake has delineated avein system (known as the JAK zone), which extends for at least a kilometre along thestrike.[10] The limits of the system have not been established along the strike nor along the dip,[10] and the zone's total extension is therefore unknown. The resource zone averages 75 m in width[12] and is composed of individual veins which, though ranging from one to eleven metres in thickness, average about three metres each.[10] Veins are continuous to 300 m depth and follow ananastomosing (branching) geometry.[10]
Estimates of the resource, given current delineations and assuming a 1.5% total rare-earth cutoff, have established a presence of at least 286,000 tonnes of rare-earth ore, which is enough to supply more than 10% of the North American market for the foreseeable future.
The Hoidas Lake claims are owned by Great Western Minerals Group, based inSaskatoon.
