The Lower Cretaceous Skeena Group in the area may be subdivided into a lower mudstone, sandstone, conglomerate unit with minor thin coal seams which are approximately 130 metres thick and an upper "coal member" which is approximately 90 metres thick which contains coal seams, mudstone and gritty mudstone. Up to six coal seams are present in the "coal member". The lowermost of the seams, the "Betty seam" marks the base of the member. The Betty seam is approximately 4 metres thick and contains two thin continuous partings, an upper 10 to 18 centimetre white clay parting and a lower 5 to 8 centimetre mudstone parting. The seam has a low raw ash content of 6.6 to 12.6 per cent, a high BTU value 12,070 BTU per pound, sulphur content of approximately 0.75 per cent (raw dry basis) and is high volatile A bituminous in rank. The Betty seam was mined in the now abandoned underground mines numbers 1, 2, 3 and was being mined in 1978 in the No. 4 Extension Mine. Two closely spaced thin seams 1.0 metres and 1.2 metres thick, separated by 0.5 metres of mudstone occur approximately 9 to 10 metres above the Betty seam. The No. 4 Mine seam occurs approximately 25 metres above the thin seams and averages 2 to 3 metres thick. The seam contains no persistent partings, has a very low raw ash content of 11 per cent, moderately high sulphur 1.67 per cent and a very high heating value of 13,270 BTU per pound, (raw dry basis). The "Pit Road" seam which is 4 metres thick occurs approximately 15 to 20 metres topographically above the No. 4 mine seam. The seam, seen in only one fault bounded outcrop, is highly oxidized containing on a dry basis 13.5 per cent ash, 0.74 per cent sulphur and 10,917 BTU per pound. The stratigraphically highest seam, the Pit seam averaged approximately 3 metres in the pit area.

The structure consists of a series of north-northwest trending gentle folds with dips generally less than 20 degrees. The area is intensely faulted. A set of northwest trending faults have dissected the region into a number of subparallel linear northwest trending blocks. The central block, which contains all the known coal occurrences in the project area, exhibits a strong closely spaced set of east-northeast trending, near vertical faults. The effect of these faults in the old Mines numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 and the present No. 4 Extension Mine is generally to progressively down drop the coal horizon to the north side of each fault.

Manalta Coal Ltd. drilled the property in 1996 and 1997. See Telkwa (093L 156) for production and additional references.

Altius Minerals Corporation acquired the Telkwa Coal project in May 2014 as part of its acquisition of the Carbon Development Partnership. In September 2014, Altius Minerals Corporation entered into an option and royalty agreement, with a private, Australian funded company, Telkwa Coal Ltd. The Telkwa Coal project covers 13,000 hectares of land approximately 5 kilometres southwest of the village of Telkwa, in northwestern British Columbia. The project encompasses the Telkwa Coal (MINFILE 093L 156), Goathorn Creek (this MINFILE), and Pine Creek (MINFILE 093L 152) occurrences.