The West Carbon Creek coal property is located west of Carbon Creek and south of Peace Reach of Williston Lake, approximately 53 kilometres west of Hudson's Hope, in the Liard Mining Division.
The Peace River Coalfield extends nearly 400 kilometres along the Northern Rocky Mountain inner foothills from the Alberta border, 180 kilometres east of Prince George, to 130 kilometres north of Hudson’s Hope at Pink Mountain. Medium to low volatile bituminous coal seams of economic thickness and continuity are hosted by the Lower Cretaceous Gething (up to 1036 metres thick) and Gates (up to 280 metres thick) sedimentary formations of the Bullhead and Fort St. John groups, respectively. The Gething Formation represents the dominant coal-bearing strata north of the Sukunka-Bullmoose area (MINFILE 093P 001, 093P 014) west of Tumbler Ridge.
The West Carbon Creek property is underlain by sediments of the Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous Minnes Group (Bickford Formation) and the Lower Cretaceous Bullhead Group (Gething Formation). Sediments comprise siltstone, sandstone and carbonaceous shale. Extensive mapping has outlined an area of flat-lying to gently dipping coal measures in the core of a syncline. Peripheral to this area, sediments are severely folded and faulted. This mapping reinterpreted the coal-bearing strata as a Gething-Bickford section. A total of 1854 metres of diamond drilling from eight holes has been completed in the flat-lying core of the syncline. Correlation of the drillhole data shows numerous coal seams greater than 1.0 metres thick throughout the Gething and Bickford section. There is no overlap between the three groupings of drillholes and seams are rarely penetrated twice. In effect, the present drilling pattern has incompletely tested the Gething-Bickford section. Coal seam continuity is unreliable, and it was recommended for the 1983 exploration program to conduct infill shallow rotary drilling to aid in correlation as opposed to peripheral drilling to further outline the structurally favourable area (Coal Assessment Report 509).
The West Carbon Creek property exposes a major syncline and anticline with a series of en echelon folds trending north-northwest. The major syncline, lying in the western half of the property, is broad in the southern half of the property but tightens northward with the development of en echelon folds. The Gething, Cadomin and Bickford formations are exposed in the core. Drillcore data reveal that the eastern limb of the syncline flexes abruptly. All drillcore from the syncline exhibit slippage along bedding planes, occasionally lined with calcite. Frequently, calcite veinlets are oriented perpendicular to bedding. The major anticline, lying on the eastern half of the property, develops into a box anticline towards the north. Two reverse faults, dipping steeply to the west-southwest, extend along the eastern edge of the major anticlinal axis. Movement along the reverse faults are approximately 150 metres in the southern end on the property. Faulting is considered contemporaneous to the folding.
Coal occurrences in the Carbon Creek area were first documented in the early 1900s by prospectors such as Rochfort, Barr and McAllister. In 1947, the British Columbia Department of Mines sent W.H. Mathews into the Carbon Creek Valley to investigate the coal resources. Mathews outlined the structure and distribution of coal-bearing rocks and exposures of coal of possible commercial interest. Subsequent regional investigations of the area were made in 1961 and 1964.
In August 1975, G.H. Raymer conducted a reconnaissance evaluation in the area of the West Carbon Creek property on behalf of Utah Mines Ltd. His work outlined shallow-dipping coal measures considered to be of Gething Formation strata, along and adjacent to the synclinal axis on the western part of the property. The coal measures were estimated to be approximately 1040 metres thick containing coal seams up to 2.23 metres thick. In 1978, 20 coal licenses were acquired, comprising the West Carbon Creek property. An exploration program was designed to test the economically recoverable coal potential and between May and September of 1978, geological mapping and diamond drilling was undertaken by Utah Mines Ltd.; a total of 371.55 metres of diamond drilling were completed in two holes. In 1980, an exploration program comprised three diamond drill holes, totalling 617.92 metres. In 1981, two diamond drill holes, totalling 432 metres, were completed. In 1982, geological mapping was conducted, and one diamond drill hole was completed to a depth of 432 metres.
