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File Created: 11-Aug-1986 by Gary R. Foye (GRF)
Last Edit:  06-Mar-2025 by Del Ferguson (DF)

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NMI
Name DONOVAN CREEK, POORMAN CREEK, ROTTACKER PLACERS, STRAND Mining Division Cariboo
BCGS Map 093H001
Status Past Producer NTS Map 093H04W
Latitude 053º 03' 16'' UTM 10 (NAD 83)
Longitude 121º 47' 58'' Northing 5879001
Easting 580467
Commodities Gold Deposit Types C01 : Surficial placers
Tectonic Belt Intermontane Terrane Barkerville
Capsule Geology

The DONOVAN CREEK placer occurrence is located south of Lightning Creek and the Barkerville Highway, approximately 16 kilometres west of the village of Wells.

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 metasedimentary 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.

Placer gold production on Donovan Creek has apparently been mainly from hydraulic mining gravel immediately above bedrock. The gravel is overlain by glacial silt and gravel. In one pit at least, the gold bearing gravels were reported to be 1.5 metres thick. The gold is coarse, worn and nuggety.

"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).

In 2013, Henning Gold Mines Inc. drilled 6 reverse circulation (RC) holes totaling 328.76 metres on their Lightning Creek property, including Donovan Creek. Drill locations resulted from an airborne electromagnetic survey and a 2D resistivity ground survey. The 50 drill samples processed indicated that the highest gold concentrations are restricted to the sequence of Sangamon interglacial cobble-rich fluvial gravel layers (Assessment Report 34963).

Bibliography
EMPR AR 1892,1895-tables; 1925-147; 1926-170; 1927-168; 1928-194; 1930-165; 1931-85; 1932-100; 1933-132; 1935-C36; 1939-106;
1940-93; 1941-88; 1942-87; 1945-126; 1946-198; 1947-193
EMPR ASS RPT 16512, 34963
EMPR BULL 28, pp. 21,25
EMPR FIELDWORK 1990, pp. 331-356; 1992, pp. 463-473
EMPR EXPL 1989, pp. 147-169
EMPR P. 2003-1, pp. 77-96
GSC SUM RPT 1933A, p. 52
GSC MAP 1424A

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