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known of these; several small mines have been worked from time to time
during the past 25 years, and the coal transported to Dawson Creek and
Fort St. John for domestic use. The King Gething mine on King Creek
(King seam), on the east slope of Portage Mountain, and the Peace River
coal mine on Larry Creek (Murray seam), on the west slope of Portage
Mountain, are presently active. Coal is also mined at the Packwood
mine (No. 1 seam) on a southern spur of Butler Ridge, and at the Hasler
Creek mine on Hasler Creek (Discovery seam). The combined coal
resources of the six areas have been estimated by the Royal Commission
on Coal (MacKay, 1947) as 467,040,000 tons of probable mineable coal
with 573,440,000 tons of possible additional mineable coal (See Table II).
It is obvious from these figures that the coal deposits of northeastern
British Columbia form an important reserve, and there is no doubt that
more and more use will be made of them as transportation improves and
as population grows in that region.

Descriptions of the geology and structure of the individual coal areas
are given under separate headings in pages that follow.

A few additional coal seams are found in the Dunvegan sandstones
of Upper Cretaceous age, but these are too small to be commercially im-
portant, although some of them have been worked on a small scale for
local domestic use. According to M. Y. Williams (1934), a 30-inch seam
is exposed on Doig River and a 12-inch seam outcrops here and there for
10 miles above its mouth. A 20-inch seam is exposed about 3 miles above
the mouth of Kiskatinaw River, and a similar seam outcrops on the same
river at the west boundary of tp. 80, rge. 17. A 1-foot seam in the valley
of Coal Creek and a 2-foot seam in the north bank of Pine River near the
Forks (East Pine) have both been worked. Small seams also occur at the
mouth of Coldstream Creek southeast of the Forks. Williams (1944) also
reports a 1-foot seam of coal on Table Mountain west of Fort Nelson at
the base of the Fort Nelson formation, which is the equivalent of the Dun-
vegan formation. C. O. Hage (1945) found a 15-inch seam of low-grade
coal in late Upper Cretaceous sandstone beds that cap the Kotaneelee
formation on the east bank of the Liard 2 miles above the mouth of Kotanee-
lee River.

An occurrence of brown lignite on Coal River 6 miles north of mile
533, Alaska Highway, is an added coal resource. Large masses of drift
lignite collected from the river bars were used in heating camp buildings
when the road was under construction. The amount of lignite accessible
has not yet been determined, but Williams (1944) notes that it is at least
15 feet thick and outcrops for some 600 yards along the river bank for the
width of the river flats, or about 300 yards.

In the following pages, coal is referred to as of a certain ‘rank’ based
on the fixed carbon percentage and the calorific value of the coal calculated
on a mineral-matter-free basis. Coals having 69 per cent or more fixed
carbon on the dry, mineral-matter-free basis are classified according to
fixed carbon, regardless of their calorific value, whereas lower rank coal
containing less than 69 per cent fixed carbon is classified according to
B.t.u. per pound on the moist mineral-matter-free basis. When lower
rank coals are marginal between bituminous and sub-bituminous, those
that show a “weathering index’ of less than 50 per cent, and thus are
considered non-weathering, and/or tend to cake or agglomerate on burning

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