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File Created: 10-Apr-1986 by Eileen Van der Flier Keller (EVFK)
Last Edit:  10-Jun-2020 by George Owsiacki (GO)

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NMI
Name PRUDENTIAL, GROUNDHOG Mining Division Omineca
BCGS Map 104A100
Status Showing NTS Map 104A16E
Latitude 056º 56' 54'' UTM 09 (NAD 83)
Longitude 128º 06' 02'' Northing 6311995
Easting 554714
Commodities Coal Deposit Types A05 : Anthracite
Tectonic Belt Intermontane Terrane Overlap Assemblage
Capsule Geology

The Prudential occurrence comprises coal showings found on Mount Laidlaw, Prudential Mountain and Kluayaz Lake approximately 161 kilometres northeast of the community of Stewart. The Prudential occurrence forms part of the Groundhog coalfield. The Groundhog coalfield is an oblong (30 by 80 kilometres), northwest-oriented area which extends from the headwaters of the Klappan and Little Klappan rivers to Groundhog Mountain. Refer to the Discovery deposit (104A 078), located 15 kilometres southwest, for an overview of the work history, regional geology and local geology of the Groundhog coalfield.

Locally, the Prudential Member hosts the majority of coal seams and is likely correlative with the more widely recognized Currier Formation of the Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous Bowser Lake Group. Bowser Lake Group sediments comprise shale, siltstone and sandstone. Coal seams are generally narrow and rarely exceed 1.0 metre, however, a 4-metre seam was observed. The thickest seams occur on the east flank of Mount Laidlaw where seams measuring 1.0 and 1.5 metres were documented, and on eastern Prudential Mountain with a 1.0 metre thick seam (Coal Assessment Report 106). Evenchick and Thorkelson include the rocks in the Prudential area in the Groundhog-Gunanoot assemblage.(Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin 577).

The area has undergone considerable deformation resulting in high amplitude, short wavelength, chevron-style folds which are upright to overturned to the northeast. Most coal seams are pervasively sheared, contain abundant pyrite and are strongly oxidized. Coal rank varies from meta-anthracite to semi-graphite. Few samples have been collected from this area.

In 1982, Petro-Canada Exploration Inc. completed a geological mapping program on coal licences 6916 to 7016.

In 1991, Dawson and Ryan (Geological Survey of Canada Open File 2555) trenched and sampled at two locations on the southeast flank of Mount Laidlaw, about 5 kilometres north of the Prudential occurrences. They reported on the structural complexity in the Prudential and Tzahny areas, with intense deformation indicated by overturned synclines and several repetitions of coal seams. Dawson and Ryan reported coal thicknesses from 1.57 to 9.2 metres in the Prudential and Tzahny areas, but poor coal quality.

Bibliography
EMPR COAL ASS RPT 97, *106
EMPR FIELDWORK 1984, pp. 342-351; 1985, pp. 225-229; *1989, pp. 473-477; *1990, pp. 415-418
EMPR MAP 8
EMPR OF 1987-22; 1994-14
EMPR P 1986-5, pp. 19-21
EMPR PFD 812623, 680663
GSC BULL *16; *577
GSC OF *2555; 2582; 2779; *5734
GSC P 79-1B, pp. 411-414; 88-1E, pp. 91-96; 89-1E, pp. 133-138
CSPG BULL , Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 231-245
*Bustin, R.M. (1984): Coalification levels and their significance in the Groundhog coalfield, North-Central British Columbia, International Journal of Coal Geology, Vol. 4, Issue 1, July 1984, pp. 21-44
*MacLeod, S.E. and Hills, L.V. (1990): Conformable Late Jurassic (Oxfordian) to Early Cretaceous Strata, Northern Bowser Basin, British Columbia: a Sedimentological and Paleontological Model: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, Vol. 27, pp. 988-998

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