The Bowron River Coal showing is located approximately 58 kilometres east-southeast of the town of Prince George, south of Highway 16 along the Bowron River. The showing is in the Cariboo Mining Division.

The area is underlain by the Mississippian to Permian Antler Formation (Slide Mountain Group), which consists of fault-bounded, mainly basaltic volcanic rocks juxtaposed within a wide variety of Paleozoic to Mesozoic sedimentary and metasedimentary rocks. Within the Antler Formation, in fault contact and likely also unconformable contact, is a horizon of Upper Eocene undivided sedimentary rocks that host the Bowron River coal beds.

Three workable coal seams and a number of thin seams and partings are present interbedded with shale, sandstone and minor conglomerate. The coal measures have not been age dated but are either Cretaceous or, more likely, belong to the Upper Eocene Bowron River Formation. The seams, exposed at the Hepburn Coal Exposures, are 3.1 metres (Big Seam), 1.5 metres (six-foot seam) and 3.7 metres (eight-foot seam) thick, of which 2.8 metres, 1.3 metres and 2.4 metres, respectively, is coal. The coal is interbedded with claystone, shale and sandstone beds, 1.3 to 28 centimetres thick. The coal is bituminous in rank and of good coking quality. Moisture contents in selected samples range from 3.0 to 6.0 percent, volatile matter from 37.3 to 44.4 per cent, fixed carbon from 46.9 to 54.3 per cent, ash from 1.0 to 8.0 per cent and sulphur from 1.0 to 1.4 per cent. Calorific value ranges from 11 970 to 12 517 BTU. The coal content of the basin (16.9 square kilometres) is estimated to be 150 million tonnes.

The beds generally strike northwest to southeast with moderate to shallow dips to the northeast. A number of northwest- to southeast-trending folds are present, and the dips steepen towards the surrounding igneous rocks. The basin is fault bounded. See Bowron River Coal (MINFILE 093H 005) for more information.

Reported resources are 27 million tonnes indicated, 45 million tonnes inferred and 307 million tonnes speculative or unclassified. This is an estimate for the Bowron River basin as represented by Northern Coal Mines in 1970 (BC EMPR Property File, Rimfire File, 1970 letter by David Betts).

Work History

In 1970, the coal property was held by Northern Coal Mines Limited. By this time an extensive exploration programme including 42 diamond drill holes had been completed over an area covering 3.2 by 0.8 kilometres.