The Corinth group comprising the Corinth, Miantonomah and Wild Goose No. 2 Crown-granted claims, in 1952, formed part of the holdings of Silver Ridge Mining Company Limited. The workings, on the Corinth claim, are located on upper Howson Creek, a short distance below Wild Goose Basin, at an elevation of between 1770 and 1830 metres.
The property is an old one, first reported in 1896 and apparently worked until 1907. In 1925, under ownership of the Corinth Silver Lead Mining Company Limited, of Seattle, Washington, a crosscut (No. 3 adit) was started to gain additional depth on the old workings. Nothing further was done from 1927 until 1948 when Maurice Ansaldo and partners shipped from old dumps, and mined from old showings. Mining Company Limited drove a crosscut beneath one of these showings. This adit was driven in 1949 and 1950 from a point 61 metres east of the creek. This adit in 1950, was 83 metres in length, and at a point 44 metres from the portal, a drift 38 metres in length had been driven. No lode was found. During 2005 through 2014, Klondike Silver Corp. examined the area as apart of their Slocan Silver Camp property.
Old workings consist of a caved adit driven on a nearly east-west striking lode that has been stoped to surface across a low ridge west of the creek. A caved portal on the west side of the ridge indicates continuity of the lode for about 91 metres. No. 2, a slightly lower adit, 53 metres to the northeast, is caved at the portal, but is accessible by a raise from below. An irregular south-dipping lode 30.4 metres in length, in this adit has been stoped to surface. Discontinuous mineralized fractures are encountered at intervals in the drift that extends a further 55 metres to the west.
No. 3 level was driven south for 370 metres. A narrow mineralized lode, as much as 0.6 metre wide, is crossed 30.4 metres from the portal. It is exposed in a drift to the west for a length of 20 metres and terminates against a flat-bedded slip. A raise extends to the surface. A strong east-west gougy unmineralized fissure is crossed 274 metres from the portal. It is followed by a drift to the west for 59 metres, and to the east for 79 metres. A raise west of the crosscut on this fissure extends at about 50 degrees to sublevels at 24 and 40 metres.
On the surface near No. 3 adit a trench has been dug on broken, mineral-bearing ground. This and old open cuts to the west indicate an east-west fissure or lode zone almost at right angles to the prevailing local strike of the strata. Just below the main road, about 137 metres east of the creek, there are 2 old shallow workings, on one of which there has been some underhand stoping.
The claim was owned in 1958 by S.J. Chin and prospecting was carried out under the name Kachin Explorations Ltd. In 1983 the property was held by Wavecrest Resources Ltd. and Springpoint Resources Ltd. under a joint venture agreement. Canada Development Corporation, approximately 85 per cent owned by the Government of Canada, optioned the property through a subsidiary, Ventures in Applied Science and Engineering ("Vase").
Regionally, the area lies on the western margin of the Kootenay Arc, in allochthonous rocks of the Quesnel Terrane. In the vicinity of the occurrence, the Quesnel Terrane is dominated by very fine grained clastic sedimentary rocks of the Upper Triassic Slocan Group that include locally weakly metamorphosed argillite, quartzite, limestone and some tuffaceous rocks. These sedimentary rocks are intruded by dikes, sills and stocks of varied composition and origin. Permian and/or Triassic Kaslo Group metamorphosed volcanic rocks occur to the north of the Slocan Group rocks. Middle Jurassic Nelson intrusions are immediately south of the Slocan Group and are inferred to be the source of granitic to pegmatitic sills and dikes found in the area. The Nelson intrusions comprise at least six texturally and compositionally distinct phases ranging from diorite to lamprophyre. The most dominant phase is a medium to coarse grained potassium feldspar porphyritic granite (Paper 1989-5).
The occurrence is hosted by predominantly interbedded black argillite, quartzite and limestone of the Slocan Group. The sedimentary rocks have been folded, fractured, faulted and regionally metamorphosed to greenschist facies. The regional northwest trending asymmetric Slocan syncline is thought to be Middle Jurassic and is the first recognizable deformation in the sequence. Several fault structures are evident and host vein mineralization. Later stage normal and thrust faults and shearing have chopped, deformed and remobilized the veins and mineralization. Drag features are also present.
On the Corinth property, the sedimentary rocks strike 145 degrees and dip 50 degrees northeast. The mineralized structure strikes east, dips 50 degrees south and has been explored with three or more adits and vertical raises that break through to the surface. The mineralized vein is within a 60 centimetre wide brecciated shear zone. The fissure vein is mostly filled with crushed wallrock and lesser amounts of galena, sphalerite and pyrite in a gangue of coarse calcite with minor rhodonite. The ore is concentrated in narrow pockets along the vein.
Intermittent past production from the property between 1900 and 1978 yielded 263,568 grams of silver, 69,210 kilograms of lead, 5556 kilograms of zinc and 78 grams of gold from 154 tonnes mined.
