Redefining the Southern Nicola Group: Petrographic and Structural Characterization of the Eastgate-Whipsaw Metamorphic Belt, Southern British Columbia (NTS 092H/02E)

The Late Tri as sic–Early Ju ras sic Nicola Group in south-cen tral Brit ish Co lum bia and its north ern con tin u a tion, the Takla Group, con sti tute the vol ca nic arc that de fines the ex tent of the Quesnel terrane (Fig ure 1). It hosts eco nom i cally sig nif i cant alkalic por phyry cop per-gold de pos its, in clud ing those at Cop per Moun tain, High land Val ley, Mount Milligan and Mount Polley. Past geo log i cal map ping of the Nicola Group by Rice (1947), Preto (1972), Mortimer (1987) and Mon ger (1989) es tab lished its dis tri bu tion and di vided it into three dif fer ing belts. How ever, the south west erly por tion of the Nicola Group, south of the town of Prince ton, on the east ern bound ary of Man ning Park, was not as signed to any of the three ma jor belts, al though Mortimer (1987) sug gested it may be a part of the calcalkaline west ern belt.