| The Pine Pass map area, in the northeast part of the province, contains 49
documented mineral occurrences. The northeast half of the map area lies within the
Forland belt and is made up, almost equally, of Upper Proterozoic and Paleozoic
sedimentary rocks of the Ancestral North America terrane, to the southwest, and Jurassic
and Cretaceous cratonal overlap sedimentary rocks, to the northeast. The southwest half of
the map area, lying mainly in the Omineca belt, is underlain primarily by Upper
Proterozoic and Paleozoic rocks of the Cassiar and Slide Mountain terranes. Of
primary interest in the area are the coal deposits that occur within the Cretaceous
cratonal overlap assemblage. The Goodrich
coal deposit (093O 034) has inferred reserves of 80,000,000 tonnes, the Willow
Creek coal deposit (093O 008) has indicated reserves of 72,500,000 tonnes, the Carbon
Creek coal deposit (093O 028) has proven/probable/possible reserves of 61,600,000
tonnes and the Peace
River Canyon deposit (093O 012) has a combined indicated and inferred reserve of
54,700,000 tonnes. Thirty-three tonnes of Slide Mount Group limestone has recently been
mined at the McKenzie
Limestone deposit (093O 039) near the town of MacKenzie for its use in paper
mills. Several other limestone deposits, with reserves estimated to be in the millions,
have also been examined. Other significant commodities in the area include silica,
bentonite, iron/magnetite and thorium and rare earth-rich pegmatites. |
