Placer gold was historically mined in Quesnel River (South Fork) upstream from Quesnel Forks, about 5 kilometres west of Likely. Production from 1874 to 1915 and from 1926 to 1945 totalled 3,544,718 grams gold. Bedrock geology in the area consists of Upper Triassic basalt of the Nicola Group.

"Data from the Cariboo mining district indicate that supergene leaching of gold dispersed within massive sulphides by Tertiary deep weathering followed by Cenozoic erosion is the most likely explanation for the occurrence of coarse gold nuggets in Quaternary sediments" (Exploration in British Columbia 1989, page 147).

The first placer mining in the Quesnel mining district was along the Quesnel River, and on Horsefly River in 1859. In 1860, new discoveries were rapidly made - Keithley, Snowshoe, and Harvey creeks were discovered and a large amount of gold was produced before the earliest production was recorded in 1874. Fully one-third of the total production of the Quesnel district is believed to have been mined between 1860 and 1873 (Bulletin 28).