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.

In 1861, rich strikes were made on Williams Creek. Williams Creek was one of the richest placer producing creeks in the Barkerville area. Several properties were located along the creek over a distance of about six kilometres. A rich pay-streak occurred on bedrock in a buried channel and there was at least one interglacial pay-streak. Most of the production was probably by hydraulicking but there was also a considerable amount of drift mining done especially during the early days. Almost continuous recorded production from 1874-1940 totalled 2,659,983 grams gold (Bulletin 28).

"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).