Fraser Bend Claims
The Fraser bend claims are situated in the ledgendary cariboo mining district in central British Columbia.The claims are centeral to the famous Gold Rush Trail and on the high gold bearing structure referred to as the Fraser Bend Formation stretching all the way to the Yukon. The Fraser Bend claims cover 55 units (4300 acres) on the banks of the Fraser River, and are situated southwest of Hixon. BC in one of the most stratigic, high potential placer gold bearing areas in the Cariboo.
In its heyday, Barkerville and Quesnel were the focal points of the incredible god rush of the late 1800’s. Barkerville was at one time the largest city west of Chicago and north of San Francico. Today Barkerville is an authentically restorde town with a unique street scape that takes you back in time to the hieght of the gold rush. In 1862, englishman Billy Barker found gold on Williams Creek, a discovery that started a rush of fortune seekers from all over the world. Between 1862 and 1870, over 10,000 people traveled the Cariboo Wagon Road, named the eighth wonder of the world, converging on the goldfeilds and the boomtown. During the height of the Gold Rushit was thought that barkerville would become one of the largest cities on the West Coast, but when the tecnoligy of the day could not extract any further gold, Barkervilled died. It stood abandoned for more than 70 years. In 1957, the provincial government took over Barkerville and started the long process of restoring and reconstruting it into a historic site.As shown by its historical record, and the current activity of modern mining companies, Barkerville area is still one of the richest gold areas on the continent.
While Barkerville has been the focas of the past, geological mapping and minning avtivities confirm the same structures projecting north west along the old Gold Rush Trail. Of special interest is the area north and west of Quesnel, along the strike of the massive structure known as the Barkerville, Quesnel and related Terranes. This has been mapped as an extention of the Barkerville Terrane structure area and includes the area of the Fraser Bend Claims. As such it can be concluded that the yet undiscovered bonanza area lies in this area obscured by deep overburden and heavy forest cover. Also, this area does not contain a network of deep cutting creeks and rivers. Therfore the rich Tertiary gravels and heavygold laden PaleoChannels (1) that potentially lie below are yet to be discovered. Although several operations have produced impressive results in the southern areas, low terrace placers and visible gold have been maped to the north. Within these rock structures are the well known Tertiary gravels that have historically produced signifiogant concentrations of placer gold. Several outcrops are noted on the Fraser Bend claims and the surrounding area to the north and south alomg the Fraser River. These are also found on the banks of the Fraser River. There is no reason to believe that the same abundence of gold as found to the south (from Quesnel, east to Brakerville and south to Likely) does not equal or better these areas in potential.
(1) Stratigraphy and Geological Settings of Gold Placers in the Craiboo Mining District, V.M. Levson and T.R. Giles
HISTORICAL PRODUCTION IN THE AREA
The Cariboo area has historically produced an incredible amount of placer gold. In BC Department of Mines Report Bulletin (2), it was reported that the Cariboo area has produced the largest amount of placer gold in BC. It further identifies that up to 1958, total production of placer gold was 5.2 million ounces. Of this amount, 3 million ounces are reported to be from the Cariboo, with a majority coming from surface placer operations in the highly laden gravels of Tertiary sediments. Original discoveries centered on historical operations at Quesnel Forks (1860, Keithly Creek (1860), Antler Creek (1859), Grouse Creek (1860), Williams and Lightning Creeks (1861), Horsefly River (1859), Hixon Creek (1860), and Cedar Creek (1921). These operations clearly delineated a high yeild geological enviroment encompassing both inplace and surface gold. While dredges worked at Alexandra on the Fraser River, Qesnel, Cottonwod, Swift Rivers as well as on the Pine, Big Valley, Williams, Lightning Creeks and Wiskey Flats, smaller operations produced gold from a long list of creekssuch as the Hixon, Government, Lightning Creek tributaries. The Mostique, Last Chance, Van Winkle, Perkins, Chisholm, Davis, Anderson, and Willow River were also prolific producers while streams like Rouchon, Dragon, Slough, Nelson, Burns, Big Valley, Sugar, Mosquito, Lowhee, and Williams Cottonwood River, Grouse, Antler and Cunningham Creeks essentialy networked the area with gold extraction sites. Virtually ever stream that cut through the deep overburden to expose the richgravels and bedrocks was mined in some way. Major streams like Quesnel River (Bullion Mine) and its tributaries such as the Keithly, Harvey and Cedar Creeks as well as the Horsefly River have all yielded gold clearly reflecting a patchwork of gold richsubsurface – all part of the geological Terrane system.
In the northwest of Quesnel towards, and beyond the Fraser Bend Claims, because of the extensive cover, and forestation, only isolated outcrops and access to the heavy ladden bedrock Tertiary gravels is avaliable through rivers and streams that have eroded down to the gravels. This is witness by the fact that virtually evry creek in the area has been propected and produced gold. As a result, it has been projected that given the extent and the cover areas, and the extent of the host geology, only 3% of the potential of the region has been tapped into. The improvement of technology, the existence of an abundance of gold left behind because it was too fine for historic extraction processes, or because it was not economically viable to extract from bedrock material, are now becoming major compelling factors underscoring the enormous opportunity reflected in the area, particularly the Fraser Bend Claims.
(2) BC Department of Mines Bulletin 21 Notes of Placer Mining in BC
THE FRASER BEND CLAIMS
The Fraser Bend Claims are situated centeral to the massive geologic lineation referred to as the Barkerville and related Terranes. These contain many precious metal bearing mines stretching to the Yukon and includes the in-place gold, sulphide formations and rich gravel beds that follow the famous Gold Rush Trail into the Yukon. Central to this formation is the famous gold-laden geological formation referred to as the Miocene Fraser Bend Formation. This structure includes the richgold gravels known as the Tertiary Formation, the highly sought after layer of conglomerates that not only bears a high yeild of placer, but has remained ellusive because of the overlain structures and deep overburden.
The gravels of the Fraser Bend Formation occur along the Fraser River in a north-south belt that is at least 150 kilometers long and less than 27 kilometers wide (Rouse and Mathews, 1979). These obviously intersect the Fraser River in the Fraser Bend Claim area and both to the north and the south of the claim area. The river erosion of the structures has contributed to the expansive gold rush fever the distributed gold down the Fraser River all the way to Hope, BC.
Historical workings have been reported on the Fraser Bend Claims. A small mill was reported to be operating back when the gold price was $70.00 per ounce having yields of 20 ounces per ton. Fine placer is evident in the creeks on the claims. The Tertiary gravels are outcropped in several places but thick overburden has obscured the potential pay zones. Recentlly, 27 trenches have been dug showing graphite schists, greestone, massive sulphides and signs of the Tertiary formation. It is felt that the area contains the Paleochannel formations that have been reported(3) to contain extreamly high yield of placer gold and that the underlying bedrock may even be the primary sources of gold in the area.
Visible signs of the Tertiary formation(4) have also been mapped and mined in the surounding area. Recent and historical mining of the Tertiary placer gravels has been concentrated along the Fraser River valley north of Quesnel. Underground mining was conducted a: the Allstar mine during the 1980’s with reported approximate grades as high as 8.5 grams per tonne in the lowermost pay zone. Tertiary gravels in this area are confined by bedrock highs and 8.5 meters of gravels are well exposed above river level (about 510 meters elivation) at this location. At the base of the section up to 50 centemeters of sans, containing abundent fossil plant fragments are overlain by cemented pebble gravels with some cobbly beds. The gravels are massive to crudely stratified and coarser beds exhibidt scoured lower contacts. Trough-crossbedded sand and gravel lenses and horizontallt laminated silt lenses also occur. Other operation in the mining of the Tertiary gravels include Big Canyon.
Historically, several gravels have produced significant gold. For example, the ancient stream gravels resting on the bedrock are rich, averaging 1.7 meters in thickness, and were the richest and most important of the auriferous gravels. Quratz pebbeles were rare.The gravels consisted of weathered and water-worn pebbles of country rock. The gold was coarse, very little flour or fine scale gold being present. The accompanying heavy minerals were pyrite, scheelite, galena and barite. Included also are the interglacial stream gravels. The gold in these gravels was essencially the same as in stream gravels resting on bedrock. Most of pay streak were lean but fairly extensive. In Auriferous glacial outwash gravels, the gold was much disseminated in these gravels with uneconomical values. The postglacial stream gravels were very productive, but the pay straeks were thin. Some of the gold in the syrface gravels on the benches was course, but the majority was scattered and fine. The placer gold of this district varied in fineness from 775 to 950 as compared with the vein gold, which varried from 850 to 910. New technology put a new perspective on the attraction of these materials, and the ability to retrieve smaller particals. Many creek beds are still in production today. It is safe to say that the majority of free gold has not yet been mined.
In the vicinity of the Fraser Bend Claims, Tertiary placer gold deposit is located 27 kilometers northwest of Quesnel adjacent to the Fraser River within an old river channel. The workings on the north side of the river are know as the Tertiary Mine while the south side workings are know as the Canyon Mine. The deposit has been worked since 1917 and records indicate that approximately 68,560 grams of gold have been recovered from the Tertiary Mine uo to 1926when the channel was lost. Subsequent work has focused on attempting to lovate the extension of this channel with little success. The gold, which has been mined by underground methods, is mainly course and occurs within well cemented gravels at the gravel-bedrock interface. This gold bearing basal conglomerate, the Tertiary conglomerate, is interbeded with gravel, clay and lignite and is believed to be correlative with the Mid-Miocene Fraser Bend Formation. The conglomerate is up to 9.6 meters thick. The conglomerate rests on highly folded and fractured black siltited and phylite correlative with Upper Triassic group. The bedrock contains numerous quartz pods and stringers which contain trace gold and silver.
A sampling program conducted at the mine in 1985 resulted in values ranging from 1.475 to 9.70 grams gold per cubic yard.The overall value obtained from the six samples was $57.50 per cubic yard(5). In 1986, 10804.1 cubic yards were mined from the Canyon Mine resulting in 14,453 cubic yards of gold and 1,383 grams of silver(6). Recent work has outlined a channel, 300 meters wide by 200 meters deep and 6300 meters long, three kilometers north of the Tertiary Mine which contains the gold bearing conglomerate. Estimates indicate that there are 1,378,000 cubic yards of the conglomerate present and based on previous recorded grades from the Teriary Mine this would indicate 137,800 to 275,600 ounces of gold(7). Data from the Cariboo mining district indicate that the supergene leaching of gold dispersed within massive sulphides by Tertiary deep weathering followed byCenozoic erosion is the most likely explanation for the occurrence of course gold nuggets in Quarternary sedimients(8).
THE POTENTIAL GOLD RESIDENT IN TERTIARY GRAVELS
The placers of the Cariboo (Brakerville) district, discovered in 1860, have yielded 3 million ounces og gold. Several types of auriferous gravels are found in the district, and the gold has had a complex history following its release from the deposits and rocks during the extensive oxidation and erosion in Tertiary time. First there was an extensive Accumulation of gravels and gold in the valleys during a gradual period of Tertiary uplift. This was followed in Pleistocene time by the development of valley glaciers and stagnant ice sheet, the later protecting the Tertiary gravels from scouring and destruction. Slight uplift after the disappearance of the glaciers rejuvenated the streams forming aurifreous gravels.
The last glacial stage that affected the Quesnel Highland, the Fraser glaciation, began 30,000 years ago. Much of this ice had melted by 10,000 years ago, but small remnants are preserved high in the alpine areas of the Cariboo Mountains. At lower elevations, glaicers of this age scoured the debris left by preceding ice advances, almost completely destroying them, leaving a chaotic assemblage of unsorted till, moraine and drift, with lenses of gravel and sand that had been roughly sorted by meltwater and rivers, leaving behind beds of silt and clay that were startified by settelment in ice-dammed lakes. In the Cariboo area, the debris covers bedrock in valleys bellow 1700m, leaving typical glacial features such as U-shaped valleys, ice-sculpted drumlins, moraine terraces and glacier and river benches.
The Cariboo region is deeply dissected with low rounded hills and irregular pattern of streams, creeks and gulches. The weathering and erosion that gave rise to the dissection of the country evidently originated in the early Tertiary time and extended throughout that period. In Pleistocene time a stagnant ice sheet lay over the land, removing much of the weathered mantle at higher elevations but having little effect on the placer deposits in most valleys.
HIGH POTENTIAL REGIONAL GEOLOGY
The fraser Bend Claims are situated central to the massive geoloic lineation streatched through famous precious metal bearing mines. This area forms part of the massive geologic structure (including the sulphide formations) that follows the famous Gold Rush Trail into the Yukon. Referred to as Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide Deposits, these structures are conformable, semi-massive to massive sulphide deposits of the Besshi type, which occur in the Kootenay terrane (Goldstream Deposit), in the Yukon-Tanana and Nisling terranes, and in the Klondike schist. Recent government work by Hoy and Ferri in 1988 confirms that these are all part of an elongate terrane that also includes the Barkervill subterrane. Host rocks are deformed complexly and metamorphosed to micaceous quartzite, phyllite, magnetite, and chalcopyrite, locally sphalerite, and rarely galena. Host rocks are mainly sedimentery, commonly sitstone, quartzite, and carbonaceous schist associated with amphibolite. The regional geolgy was also described by L.C. Struik in 1988 where he states that the Barkerville terrane is considered to be the northwest extension of the Kootenay terrane, which to the southeast overlies the Monashee metamorphic core complex, a large uplifted mass of high-grade paragneiss, quartize and marble. Northwest, from the North Arm of Quesnel Lake, the characteristic metamorphic minerals change from sillimanite through staurolite-kyanite, almandine garnet and biotite is 30km further northwest. Historic mines near Well and Barkerville are in rocks of the greenschist facies. The age of both deformation and metamorphism is regarded as Mid-Jurassic, which is interpreted as the time of collision of the North American plate to the east with a group of island arcs to the west. In the Little River area, four geological terranes are represented, most of which are dominated by marine sedimentary or metasedimentery rocks.
The bedrock is folded and faulted phyllite, quartzite, argillite, shale and limestone of the lower Paleozoic Cariboo Group. These enclose a host of quartz bodies ranging from stringers, blows and boundins to fairly well defined quartz-vein zones and siliceous replacements in the limestones. All these bodies are gold bearing. Some of the vein zones and siliceous replacements have been mined extensivly during the Gold Rush. The principle minerals in the auriferous deposits are pyrite, galena, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, cosalite, bismuthinite, arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite, scheelite and free gold. Thus the geology of the area, and in particular the Barkerville channels, represents an area of incredibly high mineral potential, yet incredibly low development (due to previous limitations in technology).