The focus of my P.hD. research is on the world-class Howard's Pass Zn-Pb district located on the border of the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. The cluster of 15 deposits is the world's largest undeveloped Zn-Pb resource. Despite decades of geological work, the structural geometry and kinematic history of the deposits are poorly understood. The deposits formed during the Silurian and were subsequently deformed during the Cretaceous Cordilleran Orogeny and it is the effects of this orogeny that are hotly debated. My work focuses on detailed mapping of the district and regional structure along with cross sections, core-logging, and oriented thin section work to try and unravel the strucutral geometry of the deposits. My work so far has shown that the deposits were folded into a series of upright, gently plunging, WNW trending regional folds that are present from the mesoscopic to macroscopic scale. Fold development was accompanied with the development of a regional axial planar cleavage that is steeply dipping to the NE. This cleavage, S1, usually manifests as a slaty cleavage of anastomosing dissolution seams in unmineralized units. Within the mineralized ore-horizons, S1 comprises course-grained sphalerite, pyrite, and galena. A second part of my research will be focusing on the processes that formed these sulphide seams and to what degree remobilization played a role in their formation. This study will contribute new lithostratigraphic and structural maps towards the geologic history of the Howard's Pass district and aid in future exploration efforts within the district and elsewhere within the Selwyn Basin.
EOSC 322: Metamorphic Petrology
EOSC 323: Structural Geology
Education
PhD (Geological Sciences): University of British Columbia. Supervisor: Dr. Ken Hickey. 2022 - Present
MSc (Geological Sciences): University of British Columbia. Supervisor: Dr. Ken Hickey. 2020 - 2021 (Upgraded to PhD)
BSc (Honours Geological Sciences): University Of British Columbia. Supervisor: Dr Rob Lee. 2013-2017
Awards
Egil H. Lorntzsen Scholarship (2023)
EOAS Graduate Scholarship (2023)
Northern Science Training Program Grant (2023)
SEG Research Grant (2023)
SRK Graduate Scholarship (2023)
Mary-Clair Ward Geoscience Award (2023)
NSERC-PGSD (2022)
SEG Research Grant (2022)
Northern Scientific Training Program Grant (2021,2022)
Egil H. Lorntzsen Scholarship (2021)
Colin D. Spence Memorial Scholarship (2021)
SEG Canada Foundation Scholarship (2021)
PDAC Peter Howe Bursary (2021)
CIM Graduate Scholarship (2020)
Papers
Kamal, D. and Hickey, K.A., 2021. The geometry and kinematic history of Cordilleran deformation at the Howard’s Pass shale-hosted massive sulphide deposit, Yukon: 1st year progress report. In: Yukon Exploration and Geology 2020, K.E. MacFarlane (ed.), Yukon Geological Survey, p. 137–156.
Lesher, M., Hannington, M., Galley, A., Ansdell, K., Astic, T., Banerjee, N., Beauchamp, S., Beaudoin, G., Bertelli, M., Bérubé, C., Beyer, S., Blacklock, N., Byrne, K., Cheng, L.-Z., Chouinard, R., Chouteau, M., Clark, J., D'Angelo, M., Darijani, M., Devine, M., Dupuis, C., El Goumi, N., Enkin, R., Farquharson, C., Fayol, N., Feltrin, L., Feng, J., Gaillard, N., Gleeson, S., Gouiza, M., Grenon, C., Guffey, S., Guilmette, C., Guo, K., Hart, C., Hattori, K., Hollings, P., Joyce, N., Kamal, D., King, J., Kyser, K., Layton-Matthews, D., Lee, R., Lesage, G., Leybourne, M., Linnen, R., Lypaczewski, P., McGaughey, J., Mitchinson, D., Milkereit, B., Mir, R., Morris, W., Oldenburg, D., Olivo, G., Perrouty, S., Piercey, S., Piette-Lauzière, N., Raskevicius, T., Reman, A., Rivard, B., Ross, M., Samson, I., Scott, S., Shamsipour, P., Shi, D., Smith, R., Sundaralingam, N., Taves, R., Taylor, C., Valentino, M., Vallée, M., Wasyliuk, K., Williams-Jones, A., Winterburn, P., 2017, Integrated Multi-Parameter Exploration Footprints of the Canadian Malartic Disseminated Au, McArthur River-Millennium Unconformity U, and Highland Valley Porphyry Cu Deposits: Preliminary Results from the NSERC-CMIC Mineral Exploration Footprints Research Network. In “Proceedings of Exploration 17: Sixth Decennial International Conference on Mineral Exploration” edited by V. Tschirhart and M.D. Thomas, 2017, 325–347
Conference Posters and Abstracts
Kamal, D., & Hickey, K.A., 2021, The Effects of Cordilleran Deformation on the Howard’s Pass XY Deposits. AME Round Up 2021. Poster and Abstract.
Kamal, D., & Hickey, K.A., 2021, The Effects of Cordilleran Deformation on the Howard’s Pass XY Deposits. PDAC 2021. Live Talk, Poster, and Abstract.
Kamal, D., Lee, R., Lesage, G., Byrne., K, 2017, Textural Characteristics and Chemical Composition of Chlorite from the Guichon Creek Batholith, South-Central British Columbia, AME Round Up 2017, Poster and Abstract.