Placer gold deposits of the Quesnel Highland region, including the former rich producers of the Barkerville camp, have accounted for a large proportion of British Columbia's alluvial gold production. With the exception of a few producers in the Wingdam area, which are underlain by Upper Triassic sediments correlative with the Nicola Group, almost all the deposits are underlain by the Upper Proterozoic to Lower Paleozoic Snowshoe Group. These predominantly metasediment- ary rocks have been metamorphosed to greenschist facies.

Placer gold deposits in the region are generally found in relatively young Pleistocene gravels. The morphology and mineral associations of the gold suggests that it was derived locally, the most obvious sources are the numerous auriferous veins in the Downey succession of the Snowshoe Group.

Along Slough Creek, mainly between Devils Creek and Nelson Creek, a series of rock benches occur. These benches are overlain by glacial drift deposits varying in thickness from a few metres to over 30 metres. Placer gold, which has been recovered primarily by hydraulicking of the benches, is fairly coarse, flattened and worn. Opposite Nelson Creek bedrock is up to 87 metres deep. Mining of the bedrock gravels has been attempted but apparently with little success due to the flow of groundwater. Values of up to 34.28 grams of gold per cubic yard were indicated at bedrock by borehole tests (Property File - Jones, R. 1989, Summary Report)

"Data from the Cariboo mining district indicate that supergene leaching of gold dispersed within massive sulphides by Tertiary deep weathering followed by Cenozoic erosion is the most likely explanation for the occurrence of coarse gold nuggets in Quaternary sediments" (Exploration in British Columbia 1989, page 147).