The Pauline occurrence is located on the northeast slope of Mount Sidney Williams at an elevation of 1524 metres and approximately 90 kilometres northwest of Fort St. James.

The area lies within ultramafic rocks of the Permian to Triassic Trembleur Intrusions (the Mount Sidney Williams ultramafite). This suite of rocks is of probable ophiolitic affinity related to the oceanic Mississippian to Triassic Cache Creek Complex on which it lies.

Locally, a large zone, at least 330 metres long and 90 to 150 metres wide, of serpentinized harzburgite with dunite contains disseminated chromite and at least one pod of massive chromite and one zone of aggregate chromite. The massive pod is 2.4 by 1.5 metres and the aggregate zone, 20 metres to the west, is 1 by 3.6 metres containing 20 to 30 per cent chromite. Dunite adjacent to the lenses contains 2 to 5 per cent disseminated chromite.

Work History

The Mount Sidney Williams ultramafite hosts three known chromite occurrences: Van Decar Creek (MINFILE 093K 041), Pauline and Mt. Sidney Williams Cr (MINFILE 093K 039). These showings were discovered during mapping by Armstrong (1949) in the early 1940s.

In 1974, Douglas Stelling performed rock chip sampling and prospecting on the area as the Pauline 1-4 claims. Thirty-four rock samples with disseminated chromite averaged 0.295 per cent chromium, whereas a select sample (91952) from a massive chromite pod yielded 9.80 per cent chromium (Assessment Report 5648).

In 1979, Mountaineer Mines Ltd. conducted reconnaissance prospecting on the CR 1-5 claims with the goal of establishing the location of chromite showings. A serpentinized peridotite-dunite batholith (the Trembleur Intrusions) was found to underlie Mount Sidney Williams, with several serpentinized peridotite-dunite sills outcropping both at Mount Sidney Williams and Tsitsutl Mountain.

In 1982, a low level airborne aeromagnetic survey was flown over the Cr 1-6 claims by Western Geophysical Aero Data Ltd. The survey outlined several regional features, but the results were inconclusive due to a lack of geological corroboration.

In 1997, First Point Minerals Corp. explored the area for nickel-iron alloy (awaruite) potential.

In 2007, First Point, now FPX Nickel Corp. returned to the area and conducted a regional rock sampling program on the area as the Will 1-15 claims of the Decar property. Assay values from 42 rock samples ranged from 0.12 to 0.28 per cent nickel, with an average of 0.21 per cent nickel (Assessment Report 30499). These samples came from areas northwest of the Sidney (MINFILE 093K 072), east and south of the Pauline (093K 040) and from the Van Decar Creek (093K 041) occurrences. In 2008, a further program of rock and silt sampling was completed on the Decar property.

In 2009, First Point Minerals entered into a joint-venture option agreement with Cliffs Natural Resources Exploration Canada Inc. From 2010 to 2012, drilling, geophysical, and geochemical surveys were conducted on the property delineating a large-scale, low-grade nickel deposit. In 2012, exploration focused on resource definition drilling on the Baptiste (MINFILE 093K 116) zone. Refer to Baptiste (Decar) for a detailed work history of the area.

During 2013 through 2018, further exploration programs were completed on the Decar property and focused on the Baptise (MINFILE 093K 116) occurrence.