An exhaustive mapping and sampling program of the Athabasca Group was undertaken between 1975 and 1981 by the Saskatchewan Geological Survey (SGS), the results of which are contained in Ramaekers (1990). These samples are now stored at the Saskatchewan Ministry of Energy and Resources, Subsurface Geological Laboratory in Regina, Saskatchewan. A selection of these samples was chosen to help characterise the background geochemical signature of the Athabasca Group and to identify anomalous regions. A total of 642 samples were chosen, of which 181 were whole-rock samples and 461 were crushed-rock samples from a previous study. Four locations have two samples indicating that multiple samples were collected at specific sites. All samples in this data set were processed at the Geoanalytical Laboratories at the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, an ISO/IEC 17025:2005 certified facility (i.e., meets the General Requirements for the Competence of Mineral Testing and Calibration Laboratories). Samples were crushed, split, agate ground, and then run with Sandstone Exploration Package ICPMS 1. The package produces three separate analysis types: inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP MS) partial digestion for trace elements; ICP MS total digestion for trace elements; and ICP–Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP–OES) total digestion for major and minor elements. Details and detection limits are available on the SRC’s website. The data are presented in a single Microsoft® Excel spreadsheet. The samples were submitted in two separate batches. The first returned 699 analyses, 20 of which were lab repeats and 37 of which were standards. The SRC uses two standards, ASR-109 and ASR-209, descriptions of which are available on its webpage. An additional run of 21 blind repeats selected from the returned sample pulps was submitted separately and returned 24 analyses of which one was a lab repeat and two were standards. These data are included at the bottom of the of the spreadsheet. Location data is in Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM), North American Datum 83 (NAD 83), extended zone 13. Location data were hand keyed from the original sample sheets and converted from NAD 27, and in some cases zone 12, to the current format. Original location data were recorded to the nearest 100 metres for both easting and northing for samples collected from 1975 to 1979 and to the nearest 50 metres in 1980 and 1981. Sample location data were rechecked prior to publication and best efforts have been made to correct the data to within 100 metres in each direction; however, the Ministry of Energy Resources does not accept liability for any inaccuracies in location information. Samples have been matched to the Athabasca Group stratigraphic units based on Slimmon and Pana (2010). In addition, brief descriptions are provided for some of the samples. These descriptions are based on either the original field notes or are comments made by the lead author. This data file report also consists of two PDF files: one being the supplementary maps sheet; the second being some initial observations made by SGS geologists on the spatial and lithostratigraphic associations of select elements contained in the report’s data.

Author(s)

C.D. Card, S.A. Bosman, W.L. Slimmon, D.J. Zmetana, and G.D. Delaney