The EIGHT MILE LAKE placer occurrence is located adjacent to Eight Mile Lake, in the Big Creek Valley, approximately 6 kilometre northeast of the community of Wells.
Placer gold deposits of the Quesnel Highland region, including the former rich producers of the Barkerville camp, have accounted for a large proportion of British Columbia's alluvial gold production. With the exception of a few producers in the Wingdam area, which are underlain by Upper Triassic sediments correlative with the Nicola Group, almost all the deposits are underlain by the Upper Proterozoic to Lower Paleozoic Snowshoe Group. These rocks have been metamorphosed to greenschist facies and are predominantly metasedimentary.
Placer gold deposits in the region are generally found in relatively young Pleistocene gravels. The morphology and mineral associations of the gold suggests that it was derived locally, the most obvious sources are the numerous auriferous veins in the Downey succession of the Snowshoe Group.
Placer gold occurs in interglacial pay gravels that are overlain and underlain by boulder clay. The placer gold therefore does not occur in the bedrock channel, and it appears that it was reconcentrated by stream erosion of glacial drift. In general, the gold is fairly coarse, uniform in size, flattened and worn. The area is underlain by Snowshoe Group rocks.
"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).
Records indicate a total of 6982 ounces of gold were mined from Eight Mile Lake from 1901 to 1945, 85 per cent coming between 1906 and 1910. Records show mining was semi-continous through the 1940s and 1950s and into the 1970s but production was not tracked (Minister of Mines Annual Reports (AR) Geology and Mining in BC (GEM)).
In 1993, Jeslin Resources carried out a seismic refraction investigation at the Eight Mile Lake placer deposit. The interpretations of the seismic data reveal a relatively complex subsurface picture consisting of two or three overburden layers. The configuration of the bedrock surface and the presence of potential bedrock channels was discerned. This plan shows the interpreted bedrock surface elevations in metres above sea level. A potential continuous depression exists running through the extreme northeast of the property.
In 2013, Henning Gold Mines Inc. and S. Kocsis completed a 4-hole reverse circulation (RC) drilling program on the Eight Mile North property outlining six sedimentological units. This sequence is greater than 39.5 metres thick near the valley floor and thins to 4 metres part way up the valley side. Samples were collected at 1.52 metre intervals and processed through a shaker-screen sluice concentrator.
The highest gold grade was 0.066 grams per cubic yard across a 1.52 metre interval. All anomalous gold grades were restricted to interglacial alluvium sequences (Units 3 and 6), whilst other sedimentological units were barren.
In 2017, S. Kocsis conducted a hand trenching program to sample the surficial glacial lodgement tills of the Eight Mile North property, north of the lake. Samples were placed in a highbanker concentrator for processing, but results were poor. A LiDAR survey was completed over the area in 2019, outlining elongated features interpreted as preglacial meltwater channels where buried interglacial gravels may have been exposed.
