HE SS LAINIE YAR A.

CHAPTER I.—INTRODUCTION.

Near Stanley, two major creeks and their numerous tributaries have yielded placer
gold estimated to have a value of $10,000,000 or more. The extraordinary richness of
parts of the placer creeks, together with the known distribution of the placer deposits,
initially suggested that there might be some demonstrable relationship, such as has
been found in the Barkerville Gold Belt to the north-east, between the placer-gold
deposits, the known vein occurrences, the bedrock geology and the bedrock structure.
Field-work was undertaken in the Stanley area in the hope that future prospecting and
exploration might be benefited by the development of this idea.

SUMMARY.

1. The Stanley area is near Wells, lies on the eastern side of the Cariboo mountains,
and is drained by Lightning and Slough Creeks and their tributaries.

2. Initial important placer-gold discoveries were made in 1861 and the original
lode discoveries were made in the 1870’s.

3. The area is underlain by schistose rocks, dominantly quartzitic, belonging to
the Richfield formation of the Precambrian Cariboo series. The rocks cannot be corre-
lated with members of the Barkerville Gold Belt. Few intrusive rocks are present.

4. Gentle open folds superimposed on closed overturned folds have been developed
in the rocks during two periods of deformation. A major anticlinal axis, trending
north-westward, lies more or less along the course of upper Lightning Creek.

5. Three major faults, striking slightly east of north, extend across the area from
Slough Creek to Lightning Creek.

6. The rocks are cut by a regional system of joint fractures striking north-north-
easterly and dipping steeply westward.

7. Formational quartz veins are fairly common, but none containing gold values
is known.

8. The commonest “B” type quartz veins occupy north-north-easterly striking
and westward dipping fractures of the regional joint system. Some of these veins are
gold-bearing, others are not.

9. Pyrite is the common sulphide in the quartz veins; galena and sphalerite may
be present in subordinate amounts. ;

10. In auriferous veins the gold is associated with pyrite, but not all pyrite is
gold-bearing.

11. The fineness of gold from the Perkins veins on Burns Mountain ranges from
700 = 25 to 916 parts gold per thousand.

12. Auriferous veins are not restricted to any zone nor to any one specific type of
rock. Most occupy fractures belonging to the regional north-north-easterly trending
system.

13. The gold-bearing veins may be Jurassic in age rather than pre-Mississippian
as previously considered.

14. Placer gold has been mined from both shallow and deeply buried bedrock
gravels on Lightning and Slough Creeks and many of their tributaries.

15. The total placer-gold production of the Stanley area is not definitely known.
In the Lightning Creek section the value of the officially recorded gold production since
1874 is $1,992,845. The total production since 1861 is conservatively estimated to be
between $5,000,000 and $6,000,000 and may have been as much as about $12,000,000.

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