Forster Creek Placer, Golden Mining Division, British Columbia, Canadai

Regional Level Types
Forster Creek Placer	Placer
Golden Mining Division	Division
British Columbia	Province
Canada	Country

The Forster Creek placer occurrence is located on Forster Creek, about 23 kilometres south-west of Brisco, British Columbia.
Further comments by Giles Peatfield for the locality:
The Forster Creek placer occurrence is one of several similar placers, on creeks draining the Cretaceous-aged Bugaboo and Horsethief batholiths (see British Columbia “Minfile” occurrences: VOWELL CREEK - # 082KNE 007; MALLOY CREEK - # 082KNE 008; and BUGABOO - # 082KNE 075). These all have similar mineralogy.
The following quotation is from the British Columbia “Minfile” page for FORSTER, current to 1987.
“The Cretaceous Horsethief Batholith intrudes Helikian Purcell sediments. The intrusion is zoned from fine-grained - medium-grained granodiorite to coarse-grained quartz monzonite.
Black sand placer concentrations containing uranium-and columbium-bearing minerals occur in the outwash gravels from glacier action in the Horsethief Batholith. Minerals include euxenite- polycrase, pyrochlore, uraninite, uranothorite, allanite, andalusite, apatite, epidote, fluorite, garnet, hematite, ilmenite, magnetite, pyrite, sphene, zircon, lepidocrocite, cassiterite, and molybdenite.”
Comments by Giles Peatfield regarding the minerals reported. Note that I have included minerals that may not have been reported from all of the placer occurrences considered, and have made appropriate notes. Note also that the listing by Dawson (1974) is simply a reiteration of the results of Rowe (1958) so I have not listed his report as a reference except in exceptional cases. I have also noted the minerals reported in a crushed sample from the Horsethief Batholith. It is crucial to note that this listing includes results from four separate creeks – reference should be made to the “Minfile” occurrences listed above for more details:
Allanite: Reported from Bugaboo Creek by Rowe (1958); from Malloy Creek by Black (1976); and Vowell Creek by Schmidt (1970) and Black (1976); and from the Horsethief Batholith rocks by Reesor (1973).
Andalusite: Reported only from Bugaboo Creek by Rowe (1958).
Anatase: Reported by Reesor (1973) from the Horsethief Batholith rocks.
Apatite: Reported from Bugaboo Creek by Rowe (1958); Malloy Creek by Black (1976); and Vowell Creek by Schmidt (1970) and by Black (1976); and from the Horsethief Batholith rocks by Reesor (1973).
Casssiterite: Reported by Reesor (1973) in black sand concentrates derived from the Horsethief Batholith.
Clinozoisite: Reported only from Vowell Creek by Schmidt (1970).
Epidote: Reported from Bugaboo Creek by Rowe (1958); from Malloy Creek by Black (1976); and from Vowell Creek by Schmidt (1970) and Black (1976).
“Euxenite” & “Euxenite-Polycrase”: Reported from Bugaboo Creek by Rowe (1958); from Forster Creekby Dawson (1974); from Malloy Creek by Black (1976); and from Vowell Creek by Schmidt (1970) and Black (1976); also from the Horsethief Batholith rocks by Reesor (1973).
“Feldspar”: Reported from Vowell Creekby Schmidt (1970), with no further data. It would seem likely that feldspars are present in the placers from the other creeks, but were not reported.
Fluorite: Reported from Bugaboo Creek by Rowe (1958) and from the Horsethief Batholith rocks by Reesor (1973).
“Garnet”: Reported from Bugaboo Creek by Rowe (1958) and from Vowell Creek by Schmidt (1970).
Goethite: Reported from Vowell Creek by Schmidt (1970).
Hematite: Reported from Bugaboo Creek by Rowe (1958) and from Vowell Creek by Schmidt (1970).
Ilmenite: Reported from Bugaboo Creek by Rowe (1958); from Malloy Creek by Black (1976), who called it “titano-hematite”); and from Vowell Creek by Schmidt (1970).
Lepidocrocite: Reported from the Horsethief Batholith rocks by Reesor (1973).
Magnetite: Reported from Bugaboo Creek by Rowe (1958); from Malloy Creek by Black (1976); and from Vowell Creek by Schmidt (1970). It is likely present at Forster Creek as well.
“Micas”: Reported from Vowell Creek by Schmidt (1970). Again, likely present at the other creeks but not reported.
Molybdenite: Reported by Reesor (1973) in black sand concentrates derived from the Horsethief Batholith.
Monazite: Reported from Malloy Creek by Black (1976); and from Vowell Creek by Schmidt (1970).
Pyrite: Reported from Bugaboo Creek by Rowe (1958).
“Pyrochlore”: Reported from Bugaboo Creek by Rowe (1958) and by Traill (1970); and from Forster Creek by Dawson (1974).
“Pyrochlore-microlite”: Reported from the general area by Lang, et al. (1962) and from the Horsethief Batholith rocks by Reesor (1973).
Quartz: Reported only from Vowell Creek by Schmidt (1970), but almost certainly in the concentrates from the other creeks.
Rutile: Reported from Malloy Creek by Black (1976) and from Vowell Creek by Schmidt (1970) and by Black (1976) who designated it as “columbian”. Also reported from the Horsethief Batholith rocks by Reesor (1973).
Thorite: Reported from Malloy Creek by Black (1976) and from Vowell Creek by Black (1976).
Titanite: Reported from Bugaboo Creek by Rowe (1958); from Vowell Creek by Schmidt (1970); and from the Horsethief Batholith rocks by Reesor (1973).
“Titano-columbate”: Reported from Vowell Creek by Schmidt (1970).
Uraninite: Reported from Bugaboo Creek by Rowe (1958) and by Traill (1970); from Forster Creek by Dawson (1974); from the general area by Lang, et al. (1962); and from the Horsethief Batholith rocks by Reesor (1973).
“Uranothorite”: Reported from Bugaboo Creek by Rowe (1958) – referring to Merrett (1957); from Malloy Creek by Black (1976); and from Vowell Creek by Black (1976). Note that this mineral is not listed in Back (2018).
Zircon: Reported from Bugaboo Creek by Rowe (1958); from Malloy Creek (Black, 1976); and from Vowell Creek by Black (1976). Also reported from the Horsethief Batholith rocks by Reesor (1973). Given this last reference, and the fact that Forster Creek drains this batholith, zircon is probably present in the placers from this creek as well.

References