The Bri-Dowling Creek coal property is located south of Williston Lake and approximately 22 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 upper four coal seams of the Lower Cretaceous Gething Formation (Bullhead Group) are considered to have economic potential in the area. From top to bottom, they are the Superior, Trojan, Titan and Falls seams, interbedded with sandstones, shales, siltstones and carbonaceous shales deposited in an aggregate flood plain environment.
The area is predominantly underlain by the west limb (east dipping) of a broad, south-plunging (approximately north-northwest–trending) syncline. In the north, dips are 0 to 20 degrees and there is little evidence of faulting. To the northeast is the axis of the syncline. Towards the south and west, gentle folds become more intense and anticlines are cut by thrust faults.
The Superior seam, although continuous throughout the property, is only sufficiently thick and laterally extensive in the southern part of the property. It is low ash, low sulphur, medium volatile bituminous coal with excellent thermal and metallurgical qualities. A number of thrust faults divide the seam into four separate blocks. The seam thins and splits to the northeast.
The Trojan seam is the thickest and most extensive seam in the property area. It is greater than 0.92 metre thick in the northeast and southwest parts of the area, thins towards the central region and is channeled in places. The seam is generally low sulphur, high ash, high volatile A bituminous coal, with the high ash content caused by thin mudstone, sandstone, or siltstone splits. The seam is cut by thrust faults in the south, but in the northeast is continuous, well developed, and relatively flat lying (5 to 8 degrees).
The Titan and Falls seams attain economic thicknesses only in the southern part of the property, but are of limited areal extent. The Titan seam is low in ash and sulphur and is of thermal quality only. It is medium volatile bituminous.
The Falls seam is the least economic, not being consistently thick (very variable in thickness). The Titan and Falls seams, in the area of economic interest, are offset by thrust faults.
Diamond drill hole BC-80-19 intersected 20 coal seams ranging in thickness from 0.05 to 3.13 metres; four main seams intersected were the Superior, Trojan, Titan and Falls. The seams range from well cleated and vitrain-rich to conchoidally fractured canneloid coal (Coal Assessment Report 469).
Refer to the Gething (Dowling Creek) deposit (MINFILE 093O 025) for additional information on the exploration history and local geology of the immediate area.
In May 1978, Utah Mines Ltd. became the owner of the Bri coal licenses through an option agreement formed with Bri Coal Mining Ltd., Bow River Resources Ltd. and Rainier Energy Resources Ltd. Geological mapping, chain-and-compass road surveys and five diamond drill holes, totalling 1829.1 metres, were completed. A 1979 exploration program for the Bri-Dowling Creek property was designed to provide additional geological and analytical data with which to advance the understanding and the evaluation of the property. Six diamond drill holes, totalling 2504.5 metres, were completed. In 1980, Utah Mines continued work on the Bri-Dowling Creek property and completed 3300.0 metres of diamond drilling in 16 holes.
