The Gething (Dowling Creek) coal property is located south of Williston Lake approximately 18 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 coal at Dowling Creek is hosted by the Lower Cretaceous Gething Formation (457 metres thick) of the Bullhead Group, interbedded with sandstone and mudstone. The Gething is overlain by younger formations in places. The structure consists of a gently dipping west limb of a north-northwest–trending broad syncline. Four coal seams of the Gething Formation are known, from top to bottom: the Superior, Trojan, Titan and Falls. The syncline is historically reported as essentially unfaulted in the north part of the property but thrust faults increase to the south and west. The Superior and Trojan seams are continuous; the Superior is reported as thickest in the southern part and the Trojan in the southwest and northeast.
A joint venture of Texacal Resources Limited and Hogan Mines Limited acquired coal licenses in the Dowling Creek area in 1971 and conducted a mapping and drilling program of four diamond drill holes. The drilling confirmed the presence of high-quality, medium volatile, low-sulphur coking coal in the main prospect, the Trojan seam, which ranged in thickness from 0 to 2.5 metres. The 1971 program also identified the Titan and Falls seams. In 1976, Bow River Resource and Rainier Energy Resources Incorporated conducted a 12-hole drilling program and identified three main coal seams: the Trojan, Murray and Grant. The Trojan seam lies 37 metres below the top of the Gething whereas the Murray and Grant seams occur greater than 305 metres lower in the succession, making the Trojan seam the most important, having the least overburden thickness.
The Trojan seam is 2.1 to 2.6 metres thick in the Dowling Creek area but is thinner (0.9 metre) and contains a split of sandstone in the area of drillhole 77-7. It thins to the east and appears to be absent in some drillholes. A sub-Trojan seam, 0.5 metre thick, is also present in this area. Other thinner seams are common and the Superior seam, above the Trojan, was intersected in several drillholes.
In place reserves of 15 million tonnes (Trojan seam) are thought to be present in the northern part of the property. Analyses for the +28-mesh material indicate a yield of approximately 60 per cent at 6.6 per cent ash, 0.7 per cent sulphur and a free swelling index of 4 (Coal Assessment Report 511).
In 2009, Canadian Kailuan Dehua Mines completed a resource drilling program of 14 drillholes, totalling approximately 11,200 metres, to further define resources on the Gething (Dowling Creek) property (Coal Assessment Report 928).
In 2012, Canadian Kailuan Dehua Mines Co. Ltd. (CKDMC) conducted a 30-hole geotechnical drilling program on the Gething property to identify ground conditions and geotechnical constraints for the engineering of a mine surface facility. Holes drilled for bulk sampling and seismic cone penetration testing ranged from 30 to 80 metres depth. A single hydrological hole was drilled to 500 metres depth. The Trojan seam is historically reported at 2.1 to 2.6 metres thickness in the Dowling Creek area. The project was in the pre-application stage of the environment assessment process.
In July 2013, Canadian Kailuan Dehua Mines Co. Ltd. received permitting approval for a 100-kilotonne bulk sample and surface facility preparation at the Gething project. A 15-kilotonne sample of metallurgical coal was planned. The 1325- by 250-metre bulk sample surface facility area would include: two southwest plunging decline portals (personnel/material and conveyor), wasterock/rejects disposal pile, coal transfer and stacker conveyors, screened coal stockpile, truck loading facility, large diameter ventilation fan, water control system (ditches and settling ponds) and soil storage area. The bulk sample was to be mined by room-and-pillar method in a north-northwest–trending F-shaped series of 6-metre-wide drifts separated by 20-metre columns over a 460- by 400-metre underground area. A scalping screen plant on surface would produce a sized product from run-of-mine (ROM) coal before haulage off site. At the sampling site, the Superior seam averages 1.2 metres thickness and 30 metres depth from surface, and the Trojan seam approximately 1.5 metres thickness and 50 metres depth. Similar coal depths from surface are reported in historical drillhole BC-80-13 of Utah Mines Ltd., located 1.1 kilometres to the southwest (Coal Assessment Report 469). On-site work in 2013 included reclamation on previous geotechnical drilling programs and helicopter-assisted water sampling for baseline studies. The property has a coal resource of 254.9 million tonnes (measured and indicated) and 530.8 million tonnes (inferred) and is expected to produce 2 million tonnes of metallurgical coal annually for 20 to 30 years from the Trojan and Superior seams. An underground long-wall operation is planned. The company drilled the property to 900 metres depth for a 2011 feasibility study. Historically, the coal has been ranked as medium (Superior) to high (Trojan) volatile bituminous. The CKD joint venture includes the Kailuan Group, a major coal mining company in China; and the Shougang Group, China’s largest steel producer.
