The Wishaw quartzite occurrence is located approximately 75 kilometres north of McBride on the north shore of Wishaw Lake, 15 kilometres west of the British Columbia–Alberta border and within the Cariboo Mining Division.

The area is located within the domain of platformal strata of Ancestral North American provenance, in a thrust sheet bound by anastomosing, west- to southwest-dipping thrust faults. It is defined by quartzites and quartz arenites of the lower Cambrian Mahto Formation (Gog Group). To the south and west are a package of middle Cambrian dolomitic rocks, and to the east are a package of underthrust, Ordovician limestones, dolomites and variable calcareous sedimentary rocks.

Locally, a test quarry north of Wishaw Lake exposed massive, fine- to medium-grained, cross-bedded, beige-coloured orthoquartzite, which forms part of the lower Cambrian Mahto Formation (Gog Group). The quartzite splits along bedding planes that are 1.0 to 2.0 metres apart. Bedding has a uniform strike of 070 degrees and dips 28 degrees south.

The rock is brittle but very strong and competent. The exposed quartzite is between 300 and 350 metres wide, of which one-third would constitute commercially interesting rock. A similar occurrence (Babette Lake - MINFILE 093I 005) has been investigated several kilometres to the north near Babette Lake.

Work History

In 1992, a sampling program within the Mahto Formation was conducted by The Sage Group to determine the viability of quarrying dimension stone. The authors concluded that the rock was likely not suitable for dimension stone purposes (Assessment Report 22619). Ava Resources Ltd. initiated road building to the property in 1995. In 1998, a small amount of pink quartzite was submitted for structural quality testing and polishing characteristics. In 199, T.P. Cardle evaluated the Swamp 1 claim, 3 kilometres to the southwest, for quartzite ornamental stone (Assessment Report 25748).