Fraser River (Lillooet) placer, Lillooet Mining Division, British Columbia, Canadai

Regional Level Types
Fraser River (Lillooet) placer	Occurrence
Lillooet Mining Division	Division
British Columbia	Province
Canada	Country

The Fraser River (Lillooet) placer occurrence is located about 3.2 kilometres south (downriver) from Lillooet, British Columbia.
The following quote is from B.C. Government site “Minfile”- Minfile No. 092INW 063, current to 1998:
“Most of the production from the Lillooet Mining Division has come from bars and low benches along the Fraser River and along the Bridge River. Placers along both rivers were found in 1858, and although a large amount of gold was mined from them, no records of production before 1874 are available. In many years the production recorded for both rivers was combined.
Up to 1902 all production from Lillooet Mining Division, and from 1883 to 1900 all production for Clinton Mining Division (see 092INW066) are recorded under this occurrence.”
Comment by Giles Peatfield regarding the locality:
It is important to stress that while there was placer mining activity at many localities along the Fraser River, this specific location refers to an area of dredging activity in the early 1900’s. It also has no relationship to the well-known Lytton Bar occurrence (see Stacey, 1953), which is about 50 kilometres downriver.
Comments by Giles Peatfield regarding some of the minerals listed:
Awaruite: A nickel-iron alloy was described from this locality by Hoffmann (1905, 1906a, 1906b) who, on the basis of detailed analyses, compared the mineral with “awaruite’ from New Zealand and with an iron-nickel alloy from Italy. He suggested “. . . that this mineral be named ‘souesite,’ after Mr. F. Soues – to whom he is indebted for the sample sent for identification – to distinguish this find from that of other naturally occurring iron-nickel alloys.” Mr. Soues was at that time the British Columbia Gold Commissioner for the district, based at Clinton. The name quickly fell out of favour; Johnston (1915) listed it as Awaruite (an alloy of nickel and iron). Traill (1970) listed it under “Nickel Iron”, and while he used the name “souesite” for the locality, he mentioned that there were several varieties described, but “Awaruite was the first name to be applied and probably deserves priority.” To add to the confusion, Traill (1983) still used “souesite” as a variety of nickel-iron at this locality. In recent years, awaruite has become of considerable interest in British Columbia because of its potential as an economic source of nickel (see, e.g.: Britten, 2017; Milidragovic, et al. 2018).
Iridosmine: This was described by Hoffmann (1906a, 1906b), but interestingly was not mentioned for this locality by Johnston (1915), Traill (1970) or Traill (1983). It should be considered to be tentative for the locality.
Platinum: This has been reported here by several authors. Dawson (1889) stated that it was “Mentioned as occurring in very fine scales, with gold, particularly at a place ten miles below Lillooet.” Hoffman (1905) described “. . . small to minute, flattened, rounded, steel-grey, glistening scales of native platinum; . . . .” in material from the dredge clean-up. O’Neill and Gunning (1934) noted that “. . . during the summer of 1917 more than half an ounce ($53 worth) of platinum was obtained from cleaning up the concentrating tables of the old dredge at Lillooet, which had lain idle there for several years. The locality is 4 to 5 miles below Lillooet on the east side of the river.” Finally, Dr. J. Douglas Scott, in the summer of 1966, found an “ancient sluice box” near the river bank, from which he collected a black sand concentrate, subsequently found to contain platinum amongst other minerals. The platinum was X-rayed and proved to be “ferroan platinum” (personal communication, March 2022).

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Link to British Columbia Minfile:	092INW063

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References