The Northwest (Turn) occurrence is located about 68 kilometres east of Dease Lake.

The occurrence is hosted in an Alaskan-type ultramafic intrusive complex. This zoned complex consists of a dunite core and surrounding peripheral peridotites, pyroxene-rich peridotite, and olivine pyroxenite with maximum dimensions of 3 by 8.2 kilometres. It was intruded in the Lower Jurassic (and earlier(?)) into Upper Paleozoic(?) and/or Triassic(?) metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks of the Quesnel Terrane. It is in faulted contact on the east and north with slate and phyllite of the Ordovician to Mississippian Road River Group (Ancestral North America).

The Northwest showing occurs in rusty weathering peridotites with minor concentrations of interstitial pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite to about 10 per cent, and as small, massive pods. The rocks appear to form an alternating sequence of dunites, peridotites and olivine pyroxenites.

Several diamond-drill and pack-sack holes were put down in and around the Northwest area by Falconbridge Nickel Mines, probably in 1970 (Assessment Report 3735, Map 4). Results from these holes are not published. However, Supreme Resources resampled the core of a number of these drillholes and published some of the assays. A 1.83-metre section of diamond-drill hole 28 assayed (at 68.88 metres depth) 1.12 per cent nickel, 1.72 per cent molybdenite and 0.2 per cent copper (Assessment Report 16458 (drill logs)).

In 2004, three holes on the Northwest zone included broader intervals (4.0 to 26.5 metres) grading between 0.27 and 0.35 per cent nickel (Technical Report on the 2004 Exploration Program - June 15, 2005, N.C. Carter, for Hard Creek Nickel Corporation, http://www.hardcreeknickel.com).

The Northwest Zone is contiguous with, and lies northwest of, the Horsetrail Zone. This zone has mineralization styles and grades similar to the Horsetrail Zone but is intruded by several mafic and felsic dikes which dilute the overall grade. Drill core samples from the Northwest Zone have a median grade of 0.20 per cent total nickel with grades ranging from 0.01 to 2.86 per cent; sulphide nickel-based grades range from 0.01 to 0.76 per cent and have a median of 0.14 per cent (Preliminary Economic Assessment, December 2, 2011). Total cobalt grades range from 0.001 to 0.166 per cent (Preliminary Economic Assessment, December 2, 2011). The Horsetrail and the Northwest Zones form a zone approximately 2,000 metres long in the east-west direction, and 550 metres wide from north to south and have been tested by 228 drillholes.

See Turnagain Nickel (Horsetrail) (104I 119) for further details of the Turnagain property, including geology, work history and bibliography.