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Location: 13 km S from Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, Canada
705 - 1155 Robson StreetVancouverBritish Columbia, CanadaV6E 1B5
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The Murray River property is located within the Peace River Coalfield (PRC) in the eastern foothills of the Canadian Rocky Mountains of northeastern BC. The western margin of the Foothills belt is classified as the easternmost major thrust fault that emplaced Paleozoic strata over Mesozoic strata.In the PRC there are two main coal-bearing units: the Gates Formation and the Gething Formation (British Columbia Geological Survey n.d.). Both Lower Cretaceous units were subjected to varying degrees of burial prior to the Laramide deformation and mountain-building episodes that took place approximately 40 to 70 million years ago when the Pacific and North American plates collided. The Laramide Orogeny increased the overall maturity of the coal seams. Based on drill core information from the neighbouring Quintette mine, coal seams of the Gates Formation can be comprised of up to 10 separate seams and the average cumulative thickness of the coal seams is as high as 17 metres. The basal sequence of the Moosebar Formation is a dark grey to black marine shale with sideritic concretions, bentonite, and siltstone. The upper parts comprise banded or fissile sandy shale, very fine-grained sandstone, and sandstone intercalated shale. This transition is a pro-deltaic (highstand systems tract) transition from marine sediments to the massive continental sandstones that mark the overlying Gates Formation. The Bluesky Member is a chert pebble conglomerate that is found locally at the base of the Moosebar Formation. The Gates Formation conformably overlies the Moosebar Formation. The lower portion of the formation is termed the Quintette or Torrens member and consists of massive, light gray, medium-grained sandstone, with minor carbonaceous and conglomeratic horizons. The Quintette member is overlain by several cyclical sequences of coal deposition that occur over a stratigraphic interval of approximately 80 m collectively referred to as the Middle Gates. Each cycle normally begins with laminated, medium- to fine-grained sandstone at the base, transitioning to carbonaceous shale and coal. Coal seams are thickest and more continuous in the lowermost cycle: the D through K seams are economical to mine. Individual coal seams within the higher cycles may coalesce to form a single seam, e.g., the G and I seams are typically referred to as the G/I seam. The lower portion of the Upper Gates is massive, medium- to coarse-grained sandstone and overlain by a predominantly shale sequence containing two to three poorly developed coal seams (A - C) intercalated with sandy shale and very fine sandstone. A very thin bed of chert pebbles with ferruginous cement marks the contact of the Upper Gates with the overlying marine sediments of the Hulcross Formation.
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