The Noman Creek coal occurrence area is located adjacent and north of the John Hart Highway (Highway 97) about 46 kilometres west of Chetwynd.
In the Noman Creek area, the most important coal seams occur in the Lower Cretaceous Gething Formation (Bullhead Group). The main seams, 60 (up to 1.6 metres thick), 78 (1.0 to 4.2 metres thick) 76 (4.0 to 7.0 thick metres), 40 (up to 1 metre thick), and 9 (up to 1.5 metres thick), are interbedded with sandstone, shale and siltstone. Seam 60 varies considerably in thickness and is mostly dirty and dull coal. Seam 78 varies in thickness and is fairly clean with average ash and volatile content of 7 per cent and 25.8 per cent, respectively. Seam 76 is the main seam and is most continuous.
Average ash and volatile matter contents on an air dried basis are 5 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively. Sulphur content varies from 0.4 to 0.7 per cent. Seams 39 and 40 are discontinuous and deep.
A total of about 8 million tonnes of coal is estimated for the Noman Creek area (Bulletin 36, page 17). In 1969, Brameda Resources estimated the mineable reserves in the area southwest of Noman fault, the only portion of the area "of interest to Brameda", as 2.27 million tonnes (Coal Assessment Report 561).
On the west side of Cleveland Creek, four seams of coal of commercial thickness are exposed at the base of the Gething Formation. They are termed Seam 92 (2 metres thick) at about 76 metres above the base of the Gething, Seam 95 (1.2 metres thick) at 46 metres, Seam 97 (about 2.8 metres of coal) at 37 metres, and Seam 100 (2.4 metres thick) at 20 metres. No estimate of reserve is given.
The structure consists of three main northwest-trending folds: the Noman Creek syncline, Noman Creek anticline and the Fisher Creek syncline. The Noman Creek syncline is asymmetrical and plunges approximately 12 degrees southeast, decreasing towards the northwest. The Noman Creek anticline is cut by the northwest trending, southwest dipping Noman Creek fault (reverse), which is in turn displaced approximately 80 metres to the west by a northeast trending normal fault.
The underlying Cadomin Formation contains some coal seams, up to 1 metre thick.
The Falling Creek/Beaudette Creek area is structurally complex with Gething coal occurring mostly below variable thicknesses of Cretaceous Moosebar Formation (Fort St. John Group) rock.
From the late 1960s to the 1990s, the Noman Creek area was part of a large project area called the Pine Pass property, which followed the coal along strike from Noman Creek easterly and southeasterly to the current Willow Creek mine area (093O 008), Falling Creek, Hasler mine area (093P 024) and extending into Highhat River.
In October 1968, an exploration adit (36 metres long) was driven at the Noman Creek coal deposit of Pine Pass Coal Company Ltd. so that coal samples could be obtained for testing; sixteen barrels of coal were shipped to Japan along with a comparison sample for local testing. The adit was driven on the west limb of seam 76 at an elevation of 605 metres, approximately 152 metres north of the John Hart Highway (Highway 97). Bulldozer work stripped the surface exposure to a depth of 16 metres opening up a face height of 21 metres; the width of seam at this point was 4.87 metres, with a dip to the northeast of 76 degrees.
In 1969, Brameda Resources Limited conducted diamond drilling in the Noman Creek area; six holes totalling 1207 metres were drilled southwest of the Noman fault and ten holes totalling 1842 metres were drilled to the northeast of the Noman fault.