LEGEND
< PLACER GOLD DEPOSITS 5
jee °
yp / N
M / BOWRON —~ \ WY, ov€ GoLo deposits
MN /% a ‘ ake\ \BOWRON YY
r. 3 ——— a .
awe aN ee QO \ GARNET TO SILLIMANITE GRADE
aoora COOPER. °
Bere: [BERENS Sb, \, PROVINCIAL
eae / 53 2 \ x , \ SILLIMANITE AND HIGHER GRADE
po + eae Sor One U SCRABBLE Sa
i Tate pia AOS CREEK WE a eg / \ PARK
oR Avcneo Ds “a S/
SSN CREEK ne ; 3 \
Ly NELSON CREEK LY yy, ~ hf S \
EE, Lj
gots Gen Fa BARKERVILLE * y 4
\ ® :
Vv B vaor-0-cwe. '
aN ompyse | / : ae
ay . ESSER .
53° 00' <& By ai
SS \ WATTS
+ ANTLER ff os
4 CREEK /* : » ae ca
a A z RN
a SAWFL AT F Ny INN tal AS ae
C CREEK acs MITCHELL
: R Pf @
,% AV caRIBoow, yj “wf NY LAKE
ie HUDSON “SS » e a
my P
Za, MIDAS -SNOWSHO x4 6 ml z iy =
YUL HAR aa.
Vez ZL B CREEK SS Pg .
Me>oRIA
RK
: iF
52° 45
t. a
S a
QuesNnbs RS
Ques
ie) 10
Kilometres
3
ty QUESNEL 3
& LAKE
| 52° 30’ ———

Figure 48. Distribution of the most economically important placer and lode gold deposits, through-
out the Cariboo gold belt and southeast to Quesnel Lake. Areas of chlorite (unpatterned), garnet
to sillimanite, and sillimanite and greater grades of metamorphism are indicated to show that the
gold deposits are confined to the low grade rocks.

could be the same age as a hydrothermal system that
pumped gold into the cooler parts of Barkerville Terrane.

In summary, the model of gold precipitation within
Barkerville Terrane involves the coincidence of 1) struc-
tural traps formed by the thickening of favourable host
rock (limestone) in the cores of folds, 2) the host rock
overlying or incorporated in rocks able to yield gold to
a hydrothermal system, 3) the host rock overlying a high

66

heat anomaly (recorded in the metamorphism), 4) a frac-
ture system above the heat anomaly to act as conduits
(now quartz veins) and 5) the high structural position (low
temperature) of the host rock relative to a metamorphic
temperature gradient. Gold precipitation would occur in
the cooler parts of the system both spatially and in time.
During peak temperatures of metamorphism the cool
parts of the system would be near to the paleosurface and