The Paradise occurrence is located on a west-facing slope in the North Thompson River Valley, north of Serpentine Creek and approximately 60 kilometres south of the town of Valemount.

Regionally, the area is underlain by Neoproterozoic (Hadrynian) Horsethief Creek Group metasedimentary rocks and derived gneisses. Medium to coarse crystalline sovite and beforsite carbonatite sills intrude the Horsethief Creek rocks.

In British Columbia, carbonatites are found in a broad zone parallel to and encompassing the Rocky Mountain Trench, extending from the Elkford area northward to Williston Lake. Occurrences within this belt have been subdivided into three subbelts. Most carbonatite occurrences are found in the central belt, which is predominantly within the Omineca Belt of the Canadian Cordillera and hosts most known stratiform carbonatites in the area between Revelstoke and Valemount. Within this northwest-trending belt, a number of carbonatite layers containing anomalous strontium, niobium, tantalum and rare earth elements occur within the Semipelite-Amphibolite division of the Hadrynian Horsethief Creek Group in the Monashee Mountains near Blue River (Fieldwork 1984). All of these carbonatites have sodic pyroxene and amphibole-rich fenitic margins and are associated with nepheline and sodalite syenites, urtites to melteigites. The time of emplacement of these carbonatites appears to be prior to the deformation and metamorphism associated with the Jurassic to Cretaceous Columbian orogeny and, in part, related to extension and/or rifting along the western continental margin. A third major extensional event at the end of the Devonian (circa 350 Ma) resulted in the intrusion of carbonatites. Carbonatites and surrounding metasedimentary rocks have been regionally metamorphosed to upper amphibolite grade (kyanite to sillimanite zone; Open File 1987-17; Bulletin 83).

The Paradise carbonatite is similar in texture and composition to the Verity carbonatite prospect (083D 005), 4.5 kilometres to the west-southwest. The Paradise carbonatite is approximately 30 metres thick, strikes approximately north and dips 30 degrees west. It is presumed to be the eastern extension of the Verity–Paradise Carbonatite Complex. Exposures of carbonatite occur with high-grade metasediments on the north face of Paradise Mountain, immediately south of Paradise Lake and along the ridge to the northwest, on both sides. Zones of significant tantalum-niobium-phosphate mineralization tend to be concentrated in narrow, discontinuous horizons. Carbonatite composition varies somewhat from outcrop to outcrop and within a single outcrop. Most consist of sovite and lesser local beforsite occurring as sills within quartz-hornblende-mica schist of the Semipelite-Amphibolite division of the Hadrynian Horsethief Creek Group.

The beforsite and sovite-fenite gneiss are generally separate units but they locally intrude each other, and continuous horizons grade from beforsite to sovite. Beforsite crystals were observed floating in a sovite matrix, indicating the sovite was later. Similar observations were made in drilling at the Verity prospect. A biotite sovite phase is unique to the Paradise showing and occurs as pods and segregations associated with nepheline syenite and feldspar-hornblende gneiss. The major constituents of this phase are calcite, biotite, apatite and magnetite (Open File 1987-17). Carbonatite outcrops are in contact with fenite containing pyrochlore crystals. Gneisses show an increase in amphibole nearing the contact with carbonatites. A banded texture caused by layering of the accessory minerals apatite, amphibole, olivine, magnetite, biotite, pyrite, pyrrhotite, pyrochlore, columbite and zircon is common in the sovite unit and less developed in the beforsite unit.

In 1987, beforsite chip samples assayed 0.013 per cent tantalum, 0.032 per cent niobium and 4.56 per cent phosphate (Assessment Report 10274). A sovite sample was analyzed and contained 0.36 per cent strontium (Open File 1987-17).

In 2007, 17 rock samples (31070 through 31075, 31411 through 31421) from the Paradise occurrence area yielded an average of approximately 265 parts per million niobium and 1035 parts per million rare earth elements with maximum values of approximately 594 parts per million niobium and 1422 parts per million rare earth elements (Assessment Report 30011). Values for promethium and scandium were not reported.

In 2009, a rock float sample (72675) from a trench on the Paradise occurrence area yielded 3375 parts per million niobium and 425 parts per million tantalum but only low levels of rare earth elements, and a series of ten 1.0 metre chip and channel samples (72710 to 72719) from a trench yielded an average of approximately 122 parts per million niobium, 21.1 parts per million tantalum and 620 parts per million total rare earth elements (Assessment Report 31648). Values for promethium and scandium were not reported.

Work History

The area has been explored in conjunction with the nearby Verity (MINFILE 083D 005) and Fir (MINFILE 083D 035) occurrences, and complete regional exploration histories can be found there.

In 1968, A. Rich conducted a program of geological mapping on the area as the Paradise group of claims.

The property was acquired by Commerce Resources Corporation in 2000 and in 2002 was grouped together with the company’s other carbonatite projects in the area to form the Blue River property. In 2001, approximately 5000 metres of line-cutting, gridding and ground magnetic surveys were performed. A 2001 drilling program focused on the Verity (MINFILE 083D 005) carbonatite to the west. During 2002 through 2013, extensive exploration programs were carried out on the Fir (MINFILE 083D 035) and Bone Creek (MINFILE 083D 036) occurrences to the south.

In 2024, Capacitor Metals Corp. conducted a program of historical data compilation and interpretation on the area as a part of the regionally extensive Blue River Property.