The Scotchman showing is located about 11 kilometres northwest of Oliver, 1.5 kilometres east of Orofino Mountain. Access to the property can be gained from Oliver via two-wheel drive gravel road for 13 kilometres and four-wheel drive road for 2 kilometres.
The Orofino Mountain area is underlain by complexly deformed metamorphic rocks of the Carboniferous-Permian Kobau Group, and by west and northwest trending sequences of quartzite, chert and greenstone belonging to the Triassic Shoemaker and Old Tom formations. These are intruded by the Jurassic-Cretaceous Nelson and Valhalla plutonic complexes of gabbroid to granitic compositions.
Granitic rocks of the Middle Jurassic Nelson intrusions predominate on the Scotchman and Standard claims and comprise granite and megacrystic granite, diorite and gneiss; granite forms the principal rock type. Occasional gneissic outcrops may represent remnants of the Kobau Group occurring as rafts or roof pendants.
Gold mineralization occurs in quartz veins cutting porphyritic granite. Similar mineralization was mined in the 1930s from the Oro Fino and Independence claims (082ESW010) 2 kilometres to the northwest. On the Scotchman claim, a faulted quartz vein, 0.5 to 1.5 metres in width, strikes 070 to 080 degrees with a 40 degree northwesterly dip. The main vein material is rusty and shattered bull quartz with 2 to 5 centimetre bands of galena, sphalerite and pyrite. Intensely altered and bleached granite wallrock, cut by quartz stringers, is locally incorporated into the vein structure.
The main quartz vein is offset 1-2 metres by northerly trending shears. These shears are probably related to a north-south fault zone interpreted from an air photo examination. This fault corresponds to a topographic low on the property. A second parallel structure is interpreted from air photos to occur about 500 metres east of the above fault. Both structures appear to be offset laterally to the northeast by an interpreted north-northeast trending structure to the north of the Scotchman Crown grant.
No specific mention of the Standard and Scotchman Crown grants is contained in the Minister of Mines Annual Reports. The Oro Fino (L.1448) and Independence (L.1449) Crown grants, which lie two kilometres to the northwest, have had work recorded dating from the 1890s. Work on the Oro Fino claim was first mentioned in 1896 and presumably work was carried out on other properties in the area at that time including the Standard and Scotchman Crown grants. Further work was recorded on the Oro Fino claims from 1930 through 1935. Presumably the opencuts and tunnels on the Standard and Scotchman claims were constructed during the same period. Grab samples collected from the veins over the years are reported to contain up to 1.60 oz/ton gold, 2.90 oz/ton silver, 5.65% lead, 1.55% zinc and 0.12% copper.
J.W. Murton carried out a brief examination of the Scotchman and Standard Crown grants in 1986. Another brief examination was carried out in 1990 by B. Miller on behalf of Crown Resource Corporation. In 1999, a program of gridding, geochemical sampling, geophysical surveying, mapping and prospecting was carried out on the property on behalf of owners A. Kilback and E. Kilback.
