The Findlay Industrial Partnership Project: Geology and Mineral Occurrences of the Findlay - Doctor Creek Areas, Southeastern British Columbia

This article is designed primarily to inform clients that new 1:50 000 scale maps are currently being completed for the Findlay-Doctor Creek area (Figure IO1). A summary of preliminary results is presented for the Findlay Industrial Partnership Project after completion of three weeks of fieldwork in the Dewar and Findlay creeks map areas (82F/16, 82Wl) during 1997. The focus of the project is to provide updated I:20 000 scale map compilations to be published at I:50 000 scale, digital databases and prepare descriptions of mineral occurrences for the area underlain by the Aldridge Fommtion. In addition, a IJ-Pb dating and lithogeochemistry study of the Greenland Creek pluton and White Creek batholith were undertaken as part of a B.Sc. thesis (see Smith and Brown, this volume). Financial support was provided by Kennecott Canada Exploration Inc., Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. and Miner River Resources Ltd. Cominco Ltd. contributed their I:20 000 scale geology maps. A summary of Purcell Supergroup stratigraphy can be found in H6y (1993) and Brown and Woodtill (this volume). Initial reconnaissance scale mapping in the region established the general stratigraphic framework (Rice, 1941). More detailed mapping in the early 1950’s by Reesor (1958) in the Dewar Creek area (82F/l6) and later, in the Lardeau east map area (82Weast, Reesor, 1973) including a portion of the current study area (Figure IO-l, IO-2), permitted subdivision of the Aldridge Formation. For example, near Dewar Creek, the Aldridge Formation was divided into lower and upper divisions, and were estimated to be over 1370 and 3350 m&-es thick, respectively. A quarter of the lower division comprises Moyie sills (about 330 m). The upper division, including the uppermost Argillite member, is correlated with the middle and upper Aldridge Formation as currently defined. The overlying strata consisting of Creston, Kitchener, Siyeh and Dutch Creek formations were also described by Reesor (1958) and Hiiy (I 993).