The Farrell Creek coal occurrence is located 16 kilometres north of Peace Reach of Williston Lake, approximately 31 kilometres north-northwest 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.
Numerous thin coal seams occur in the Lower Cretaceous Gething Formation (Bullhead Group) interbedded with sandstone, siltstone, shale and silty shale. Eight thicker seams varying from 0.3 to 1.2 metres thick are dispersed at intervals of 15.2 to 45.7 metres. The Gething coals are of low to medium volatile bituminous rank, with high calorific values, low sulphur and low to moderate ash; a number of the seams have good coking characteristics.
The structure consists of several northwest-trending folds: the Ruddy anticline is asymmetrical and plunges northward; the Farrell syncline dips 4 to 6 degrees over a 3-kilometre span in the centre; and the Farrell anticline is narrow and concentric with low amplitude. The latter is cut on its east flank by a northwest-trending, southwest-dipping thrust fault similar to the thrust fault on the west side of the property, east front of Butler Ridge.
In December 2010, the Government of British Columbia committed to develop a plan to manage the seven northern ecotype caribou in the South Peace River area. One project undertaken to assist development of the Peace Northern Caribou Plan was a modelling exercise to develop alternate development scenarios. This project integrated the available scientific information and expert opinion to predict the future abundance of caribou. It predicted future caribou numbers based on projections of industrial build-out by the coal, forestry, wind and oil and gas sectors. The report from this project, entitled "South Peace Northern Caribou Management Model", was completed in 2012 and is available at https://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/speciesconservation/nc/documents/Final_Wilson%20%202012%20%20PNCP%20management%20model.pdf.
In 1971 and 1972, Amax Coal Company, Inc. staked and obtained coal licenses that comprise the Farrell property and carried out a program of geological mapping, prospecting and drilling. Four rotary drill holes were drilled, totalling 1368 metres.
