Bedrock was struck in the St. George Pit on the weekend. This marks the end of a long journey down through geological history. Everything you've ever read about undergound mining in the cariboo; the blue clay, the limestone bedrock, the pay layers, the weeping groundwater, the tremendous struggle to raise the gold to the surface, the gold, the employment, the risk, is all being played out right now at our mine. We've practically held hands with miners from 150 years ago, and we're now in the place they've all dreamed of being.
It is quite a scene, with pay layers heaving across the profile of the wall, the Blue Clay layer which even fooled us for a while, imitating bedrock, and then the limestone bedrock itself. Where we've touched it, the bedrock tips steeply downward, while the blue clay ramps steeply upward. This indicates that we have plunked ourselves directly onto the old pay channel.
Gravels are showing good coarse gold in the boxes....As we dig up the floor of the pit and keep going down on the deeper side, using the bedrock as a handrail, we'll soon reveal the channel and the secrets it holds. To see the whole development of this pit to date, visit http://www.williamscreekgoldfields.ca/photos_devlin.html and watch the slide show called 35f Virgin Channel.
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