The Albreda showing is located about 6.5 kilometres north-northwest of the Albreda Station on the Canadian National Railway from Kamloops to Tete Jaune Cache and Jasper.
Little information is available for this occurrence except boulders of mica-garnet schist containing a fairly high proportion of bladed kyanite are exposed in railway cuttings for about half a mile in the vicinity of Albreda (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1947). It is not known whether there are nearby exposures hosted in within pelite/schist units of the metasediments themselves or in pegmatite dykes within enclosing metasediments. A claim group of four claims, the Dec Grid, was reported by the Mits Development Co. Ltd. in June 1978 and is assumed to cover the previously described kyanite bearing boulders.
The Canoe River map area is predominantly underlain by a folded sequence of Hadrynian metasedimentary strata, belonging to the Horsethief Creek and Kaza groups and their basement gneisses. Horsethief Creek Group strata in the Canoe River area are locally sufficiently pelitic to produce abundant aluminosilicate minerals (kyanite) when subject to high grade regional metamorphism (Open File 1988-26). The metamorphic grade is dominantly within the kyanite stability field of amphibolite grade. The age of the main metamorphic event in the area is Early Cretaceous (135+/-4 Ma) (Geological Survey of Canada Paper 90-1E, pp 71-80). Further information on temperatures and pressures are given in the Canoe South Mica occurrence (083D 017).
Recent geologic mapping of the area by Walker (1989) suggests this region consists of an overturned north-facing metasedimentary package. Host rocks of the showing are interpreted as Hadrynian lower Kaza Group, consisting predominantly of biotite-muscovite-rich pelites, with lesser coarse grits and psammites and minor amphibolite and semipelite (Geological Survey of Canada Paper 89-1E, pp. 101-107).
Alternatively, Murphy (1990) interprets these rocks as belonging to the Semipelite-Amphibolite division of the Hadrynian Horsethief Creek Group, which he has subdivided into six regional mappable units. The lower two of these units host the Albreda mica occurrence. The basal unit consists of thin to medium bedded, flaggy, quartz-biotite- plagioclase psammite, stratiform amphibolite schist, massive conformable garnet amphibolite and kyanite-staurolite -garnet-muscovite-biotite-quartz-plagioclase schist (locally with quartzofeldspathic knots and laminae). The overlying unit consists of pelitic schists with minor psammite laced with quartzofeldspathic stringers lending the appearance of migmatite (Geological Survey of Canada Paper 90-1E, pp 71-80). Refer to the Canoe South Mica showing (083D 017) for additional comments on the regional structure.
Pegmatite bodies, ranging in thickness from 3 centimetres to 3 metres are present throughout the area. These consist of coarse grained plagioclase, quartz and muscovite with minor garnet. Some bodies are transposed and deformed with host lithologies, whereas others crosscut foliation and folds of host lithologies, therefore representing different generations (Geological Survey of Canada Paper 89-1E). It is not known whether any of these pegmatites host mica of commercial quality.