The Wreck Bay (now Florencia Bay) beach placers occur between Kennedy Lake and the west coast of Vancouver Island. The placers extend from Ucluelet to Tofino Inlet on a flat coastal plain composed of unconsolidated sands, fine gravels and thin beds of blue clay.

These Pleistocene sediments contain a small amount of black sand (magnetite) and fine gold which is being continually concentrated at the base of the cliffs along the bay. Prospectors and campers have historically panned the sand periodically. The amount of sand is small and the quantity of gold is very small where concentration due to wave action has not taken place. The gold probably comes from the quartz veins that occur to the west of Kennedy Lake.

In 1900, 23,996 grams of gold are reported to have been removed from these sands (Annual Report 1900 p. 924). The deposit appears to have been mined out between 1899-1902. The discovery was made by Charles C. Binns in 1898.