The Blue Bell showing is located at 579 metres elevation on the Blue Bell (Lot 1902) Reverted Crown grant located on the eastern slopes of Mount Kruger. The showing is 900 metres northwest of the Lakeview (Lot 1899) Reverted Crown grant. Osoyoos is located 4.00 kilometres to the northeast.
Little information is available on the early history of the Blue Bell showing. In 1903, the Blue Bell claim was Crown granted to E. Bullock-Webster. The following year the claim was Crown granted to Geo. G. Powell and E. Morris. The nature and extent of the working on the claim are unknown. Markus Resources Ltd. assumed ownership of the claim in 1986 and conducted property exploration programs in 1986 and 1987. An abandoned shaft was discovered near the south- central portion of the Blue Bell (Lot 1902) Reverted Crown grant.
The regional geology of the Dividend-Lakeview area consists of medium to coarse grained granodiorite of the composite Middle Jurassic Similkameen batholith. To the west this includes alkali syenite and nepheline syenite of the Kruger intrusion. The Similkameen intrusion extends from 10 kilometres north of the Canada-United States border, south into Washington state. The granodiorite is grey-green, medium to coarse grained and dominantly composed of quartz, plagioclase and hornblende. The Similkameen batholith has intruded metasediments and metavolcanics of the Carboniferous to Permian Kobau Group. Intensely folded and metamorphosed quartzite, greenstone, phyllite, chlorite or mica schist with intercalations of dioritic rocks and sparse limestone lenses comprise lithologies. To the west lie a series of highly sheared schists, greenstones and quartzites known informally as the Kruger Schists. The greenstone has been highly sheared in many areas associated with emplacement of the Similkameen intrusion and other intrusions. Shear zones strike southeast and dip moderately to steeply northeast and southwest. Local variations occur however.
The Blue Bell showing is hosted in metasediments and metavolcanics of the Kobau Group, near its contact with granite, granodiorite and monzonite of Osoyoos granodiorite, a satellite stock of the Similkameen batholith. Pyrrhotite, pyrite and chalcopyrite mineralization is hosted in a shear zone. The shear zone strikes 305 degrees and dips 60 degrees northeast in sheared metavolcanics which are in turn bound by quartzite. A sample of skarn material from the shaft dump consisted of garnet, epidote, chalcopyrite and malachite.
Grab sample TC-87-005 of sheared metavolcanics containing pyrite, chalcopyrite and malachite yielded 0.20 per cent copper and 1.7 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 16074).
In the Blue Bell shaft, grab sample TC-87-006 taken 3 metres deep consisted of garnet skarn and yielded 0.57 per cent copper, 0.10 gram per tonne gold and 3.5 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 16074). A second grab sample G-87-002 of silicified metavolcanics yielded 2.81 per cent copper, 1.65 grams per tonne gold and 20.2 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 16074). A third grab sample G-87-001 of garnet-epidote skarn yielded 1.24 per cent copper, 0.24 gram per tonne gold and 2.9 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 16074). A grab sample (86KB49) taken from this skarn in the previous year yielded 2.6 per cent copper, 1.1 grams per tonne gold and 34.4 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 14877). The sample was taken about 1.5 metres from the hangingwall of the shear zone.
