The Sovereign nickel occurrence is on the southwest flank of Sovereign Mountain, about 35 kilometres east of Quesnel. Access is by the Swift River forestry access road. The claims concerned are the WIM, WIM-TA, and TOM groups, owned by Trifco Minerals Ltd.
Locally, the basement geology consists of three units, described from west to east. The first are Middle-Upper Triassic basal phyllites and argillites of the Nicola Group. These unconformably overlie ultramafic rocks of the Mississippian to Permian Crooked Amphibolite in the Slide Mountain Terrane. These rocks are thrust over undivided quartzites, phyllites and limestones of the Hadrynian to Paleozoic Ramos succession in the Barkerville Terrane. Locally, folding has caused repetition and thickening of beds. The area is heavily mantled by Quaternary alluvium (Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 421).
Nickel and talc mineralization are localized in sheared ultramafic rocks. Exploration to date has identified a small reserve of good quality talc (Sovereign Creek deposit, 093A 013). Nickel mineralization is minimal at the site. It has been identified in sulphide form as pentlandite, finely disseminated throughout the ultramafics. Investigation of talcose rock indicates that the total sulphide content, of unspecified type, is maximum two per cent. Seventeen undocumented grab samples from the claims averaged 0.22 per cent nickel with a range of 0.15 to 0.26 per cent, these however, may represent best assay values (Property File - Findlay, D.C., 1971). Seven other representative ultramafic samples, collected in 1971, indicated nickel values of 0.11 to 0.20 per cent (ibid.). Geochemical and chip sampling in 1972 found only spot anomalies of nickel and further exploration was not recommended (Assessment Report 4287).
Analysis of talc concentrates for sulphides assayed 0.08 to 0.15 per cent nickel content. Testing of floatation and magnetic separates of nickel from talc indicated a maximum recovery of 33 per cent (Property File - DeGraff, K., 1988). To date, only the evaluation of the talc potential has been done (refer to the Sovereign Creek deposit).
