Variable thicknesses of Tertiary glacial outwash silt, sand and gravel display poorly sorted, interbedded and crossbedded features and are exposed along the Quesnel River. The Quesnel Canyon placer claims are 9 kilometres east of the community of Quesnel, and can be accessed just north of Quesnel by the Quesnel Canyon Road which branches southeast from Highway 26, five kilometres east of Quesnel. The Quesnel Canyon Road, a good all-weather gravel road bisects placer claims 15320 and 15099. Trails branch off from the main access road and provide access for four-wheel drive vehicles to the majority of the property.
Located within placer lease 15320 of the Quesnel Canyon property are coarse cobble gravels overlying an undulating volcanic bedrock of the Upper Triassic Nicola Group. This discontinuous "lower bench" of gravels is 10 metres above Quesnel River and gives way to pebble gravels and silt inland from the river. This first tier bench roughly parallels the current river, is 100 to 150 metres inland and is elevated 8 to 15 metres above the lower bench. It is typically comprised of silt overlying interbedded pebble to cobble size gravels.
Test pits and bulk sampling of the lower bench have resulted in indicated reserves of 61,785 cubic metres grading 0.48 gram gold per cubic metre and inferred reserves of 36,000 cubic metres grading 0.38 gram gold per cubic metre (Assessment Report 16736). The stripping ratio varies from 1:1 to 0.5:1.
"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).
There is no apparent documented history regarding this particular property, however, there is sufficient evidence to indicate various forms of development work have been undertaken in the past 100 years. There are numerous test pits within placer claim 15320 adjacent to the river which are estimated to be 30-50 years old. In the same vicinity, there is an area 40 by 60 metres that has been worked within the last 10 years. On the first tier bench considerable effort was undertaken to construct a water control gate on an unnamed tributary to divert and control water via a ditch with the purpose to hydraulically wash cobble gravels at various locations along the bench. Downstream of Canalaska’s claims a portion of the first tier bench was worked extensively by two separate operators within the past 80 years; while upstream, there is a floating dragline/trommel plant which has worked intermittently for the past three years (Assessment Report 19271, ca. 1987). In 1987, Canalaska Resources Ltd. completed excavating, sampling and processing representative samples. These samples delineated sufficient probable and possible reserves to warrant ongoing bulk sampling. The exploration program was designed to evaluate the potential of the lower bench formation of placer claim 15320, which represents a small percentage of the total property area.
