Creeks, though gold-bearing, were not so rich as the above four and lie along or close
to the Grub Gulch-Coulter Creek fault. Davis Creek and Oregon Gulch are close to
and on opposite sides of the Last Chance-Nelson Creek fault. Anderson Creek was not
notably productive and lies a considerable distance west of the Last Chance-Nelson
Creek fault. Houseman Creek and the upper part of Lightning Creek, though gold-
bearing, were not highly productive and lie to the east of the Butcher Bench-Burns
Creek fault. The conclusion that the Last Chance-Nelson Creek and the Butcher Bench-
Burns Creek faults have played a fundamental part in localizing the placer-gold occur-
rences seems inescapable.

In addition, the extraordinarily rich placer stretch on Lightning Creek and the rich
placer stretches on Van Winkle and Last Chance creeks coincide with the small area of
intricately folded rocks along the anticlinal axis running along Lightning Creek. In
contrast, however, no unusually complex folding is known along Slough Creek nor at
Burns and Nelson Creeks where rich placer ground was mined. No coincidence nor
areal relationship between placer creeks and the outcrops of specific formations, such
as are present in the Barkerville Gold Belt, has been recognized in the Stanley area.

RELATION OF PLACER DEPOSITS TO GOLD-BEARING VEINS.

The main gold-bearing veins known in the Stanley area are the Perkins veins on
Burns Mountain, the Foster Ledges on Oregon Gulch, and the veins on the Acme group
north of Stanley. The distribution of the Lightning Creek placer deposits definitely
indicates that they were not derived solely from veins at these three localities. For if
they were, a phenomenally rich trail of placer gold should have extended from the
mouth of Perkins Creek up to its head. Actually the gold content was progressively
lower up Perkins Creek toward the Perkins veins. Moreover, not only was a large
amount of gold mined on Lightning Creek up-stream from the mouth of Perkins Creek,
but the two richest tributaries, Last Chance and Van Winkle Creeks, are on the
opposite side of the valley from Burns Mountain. Similarly, there is no rich trail of
gold extending up Chisholm Creek and up Oregon Gulch to the Foster Ledges near its
head. Undoubtedly the Foster Ledges and the Burns Mountain veins contributed gold
to Oregon Gulch and to Perkins Creek, but the bulk of Lightning Creek gold is not
considered to have been derived from these known auriferous veins.

The placer gold that was concentrated on lower Van Winkle and Last Chance
Creeks, in the rich stretch along Lightning Creek, and on Butcher Bench, where a
30%6 oz. nugget was found, is considered to have been derived from the erosion of
veins very close to the position of the worked-out deposits. The placer gold is not
thought to have migrated very far down-stream, and the progressive decrease in amount
and size of gold down-stream from the old Vancouver workings indicates the lower
limit of the bedrock source. The fact that few veins outcrop along this stretch of
Lightning Creek is in large part due to the extensive cover of drift that obscures most
of the bedrock, except along the sides of the creek. There is, on the other hand, no
positive assurance that gold-bearing veins still are present now along this section of
the creek.

The coincidence of the richest placers with the folded rocks along the anticlinal
axis running down Lightning Creek and with the section of Lightning Creek cut by
three major faults suggests that the structural environment was favourable for the
development of fractures which were mineralized with auriferous quartz. There does
not appear to be any evidence inconsistent with this hypothesis, but conversely there is
no direct evidence, now observable, of fracturing or of auriferous veins to support it.

In the Slough Creek section no auriferous veins are known, and the source of the
placer gold is unknown. One can only point out the relationship of the placer gold to
the major faults and infer that fractures were developed in favourable near-by rocks
and that they were mineralized with gold-bearing quartz veins.

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