The Bethlehem Coal occurrence is about 2.5 kilometres west of the Similkameen River and 8 to 9 kilometres southwest of Princeton. The prospect underlies parts of district Lots 965, 966 and 967.

This coal deposit occurs in the south-central part of the Princeton Basin, a northerly trending half-graben superimposed on volcanics and sediments of the Upper Triassic Nicola Group. The basin is separated into a northern and southern area by the gentle, northwest-striking Rainbow Lake anticline. The southern area, in which this deposit occurs, is a structural depression with beds dipping 10 to 20 degrees south near Princeton, and gently east between Asp (China) Creek and the Tulameen River. South of Princeton are two major east-striking asymmetric anticlines with gentle to moderate southerly dips continuing to the south. On the western margin of the basin, the strata dips approximately 50 degrees east. In the southern part of the basin, two north to northwest plunging anticlines are present. The basin is bounded and cut in places by a number of approximately north to northeast-striking, westerly-dipping faults. The main faults are the Asp Creek fault and the Boundary fault.

The deposit is hosted in a sequence of sandstone, shale, waterlain rhyolite tephra (tuff) and coal, up to 2000 metres thick, comprising the Eocene Allenby Formation (Princeton Group). This coal seam is the stratigraphically highest of seven coal seams/coal zones in the Allenby Formation (Paper 83-3, Figure 12). The sedimentary sequence overlying the seam consists primarily of light to dark grey shales, mudstones and siltstones.

The seam strikes approximately 045 degrees and dips 20 to 25 degrees northwest. Coal thicknesses range from 7.0 to 14.9 metres and average 8.8 metres (Coal Assessment Report 180, page 6-23). The deposit has been traced by diamond drilling over a strike length of 1300 metres, and downdip for up to 200 metres. It is truncated along its southeast flank by a fault striking north-northeast. Minor displacement has also occurred along several northwest-striking faults. Seven vertically drilled holes encountered the seam at depths of between 120 to 326 metres. The deposit is estimated to contain 90 million tonnes of thermal coal (Canadian Mines Handbook 1976-1977, page 43).

Analytical results indicate that the quality of the coal deteriorates from the base to the top of the seam and from south to north over the area drilled. The coal is non-coking in character and high-volatile bituminous C in rank (A.S.T.M. classification). Average ash and calorific values for the bottom 3.7 metres of the seam are as follows (Coal Assessment Report 191, page 3):

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Drill hole Interval Ash content Calorific value

(metres) (per cent) (B.T.U./pound)

71-1 3.66 13.5 10385

71-5 3.66 18.5 10010

71-6 3.66 14.9 10375

71-7 3.66 15.7 10185

71-9 1.65 21.0 10210

71-11 3.66 24.5 8550

71-12 3.66 30.2 8220

Ranges for volatile matter, fixed carbon and sulphur values from the

bottom 3.7 metres of the seam are as follows (in per cent) (Coal

Assessment Report 180, page 6-23):

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Volatile matter 33.3 to 34.4 Fixed carbon 40.5 to 42.6 Sulphur 0.75 to 0.83

The deposit was drilled by Bethlehem Copper Corporation in 1971. The company drilled 3003 metres in 12 holes, eight of which intersected the seam.