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File Created: 05-May-2009 by George Owsiacki (GO)
Last Edit:  22-Mar-2026 by Del Ferguson (DF)

Summary Help Help

NMI
Name SPANISH MOUNTAIN PLACER Mining Division Cariboo
BCGS Map 093A053
Status Showing NTS Map 093A11W
Latitude 052º 35' 15'' UTM 10 (NAD 83)
Longitude 121º 27' 18'' Northing 5827518
Easting 604674
Commodities Gold Deposit Types C01 : Surficial placers
C02 : Buried-channel placers
Tectonic Belt Intermontane Terrane Quesnel
Capsule Geology

The SPANISH MOUNTAIN PLACER property is located approximately 7 kilometres southeast of the village of Likely and 70 kilometres northeast of Williams Lake. Access to the area is provided by an 85 kilometre paved secondary road from 150 Mile House on Highway 97 to Likely, and then for approximately 10 kilometres by the gravel-surfaced Spanish Lake Road forestry roads.

Pleistocene gravels, which host much of placer gold in the Spanish Mountain area, are often truncated and/or overlain by the basal and lodgement till which also mantles much of the topography in this area. Post-glacial processes have since reworked or buried these deposits during the formation of alluvial fans along the hillsides and gravel terraces in the valley bottoms. Nearby bedrock consists of Upper Triassic Nicola Group black graphitic shales, shaly siltstone and massive siltstone with lesser volcanic tuff intruded by dikes and small stocks of feldspar porphyry.

In 1994, material had been stripped in the process of exposing a small area from which a small test mining operation was tested for its placer gold potential. Three (30 to 40 kilogram) samples were, at that time, processed in a placer recovery jig and one bank run sample of approximately 50 yards was run through a placer recovery plant. This work indicated a grade that ranged between 0.025 to 0.081 ounces per yard (0.86 to 2.78 gram per yard). In 2004 and 2005, several reverse circulation holes penetrated some intervals similar to that which had been tested in 1994. It was for this reason that during the 2004 and 2005 drill programs these intercepts were measured, sampled and analysed to assess the placer gold potential of this area by Skygold Ventures Ltd. and Wildrose Resources Ltd.

A stream sediment geochemical survey was initiated on the Spanish Mountain Placer Property in 2016, in which 31 geochemical stream sediment sites were sampled. From this work, 16 heavy mineral samples, 29 sieved silt samples and 2 moss mat samples were collected, and preliminary studies on gold grain morphologies and trace analysis were carried out (Assessment Report 36708). In 2017, Spanish Mountain Gold Ltd. continued a study of heavy mineral fractions from their 2017 stream sediment survey of the area (Assessment Report 38030).

In 2024, Spanish Mountain Gold Ltd. collected and analysed a total of 65 soil samples and 10 placer concentrates across the placer property. This survey aimed to extend and infill historic soil sampling grids across the placer and mineral properties, with a focus on following up on the northwestern trend of mineralization in the region (Assessment Report 42596).

Bibliography
EMPR AR 1922, 1923, 1926
EMPR BULL 28, 89, 97
EMPR OF 1987-9; 1989-14, 20; 1990-31; 2004-9
EMPR P 1988-1, pp. 139-145; 1989-1, pp. 377-385; 1990-3; 2016-1, pp. 13-30; 2018-1, pp. 17-33; 2019-01, pp. 15-30
GSC SUM RPT 1922A, pp. 68-81
GSC MAP 12-1959; 1424A; 1538G
GSC OF MAP 920
GSC OF 574; 844; 4615; 4616; 4617
Geoscience BC RPT 2010-1, pp. 65 - 76; 2017-1, pp. 201-212

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