The Noonday occurrence is situated on the north side of the ridge that separates Cody Creek into two forks, in the Slocan Mining Division. The property includes the Noonday, Grey Eagle, Fourth of July, Bolander and Baby Fraction Crown grants (Lots 2136, 2137, 2138, 2143 and 5542 respectively). Most of the underground workings are on the Noonday Crown grant at 1677 metres elevation above sea level.
The property was operated in 1893 by G.J. Atkins and Company, but was acquired by the White interests of Spokane, Washington, prior to 1898. Bruce White, along with his brother, Oscar, carried out development work as funds were available during the next several years until 1915 when Noonday Mines Company was formed to bring the property into production. However, shortly after this time, and before any amount of work had been done, Bruce White died and the property remained more or less idle until 1925. In that year Leadsmith Mines, Limited, was incorporated and during the next few years, until 1930, carried out extensive development work. Nothing further was done on the property until 1951 when Noonday Mines Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary, incorporated in 1947 of Alpine Mining Company of Spokane, Washington, reopened and examined No. 4 adit. In 1954 the property was under lease, and a small amount of ore was taken out. During 2007 through 2009, Klondike Gold Corp. completed programs of prospecting, soil sampling and trenching on the area.
Mine workings include 4 adits over a vertical range of between 152 and 183 metres. Production has been entirely from the upper 3 levels, most of it coming from above No. 2 level, which contains about 244 metres of drifts. The drift on No. 3 level is 213 metres in length. Some stoping was done above this level. The No. 4 level, examined in 1951, contains over 914 metres of workings, but work on this level was disappointing. According to Cairnes, (1935, p. 65), room exists between No. 3 and No. 4 levels for important mineral deposition.
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 the Upper Triassic Slocan Group, a thick sequence of deformed and metamorphosed shale, argillite, siltstone, quartzite and minor limestone. Rocks of the Slocan Group are tightly and disharmonically folded. Early minor folds are tight to isoclinal with moderate east plunging, southeast inclined axial planes and younger folds are open, southwest plunging with subhorizontal axial planes. The sedimentary sequence has been regionally metamorphosed to lower greenschist facies.
South of the occurrence, the Slocan Group has been intruded by the Middle Jurassic Nelson intrusions which 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. Several feldspar porphyritic granodiorite dikes, apparently related to the Nelson intrusions, also cut the sedimentary sequence near the occurrence (Paper 1989-5).
The rocks on the Noonday property include banded, calcareous, tuffaceous and cherty argillite and minor slate of the Slocan Group. The strata strike 025 degrees, dip 60 degrees southeast and are intruded by quartz feldspar porphyritic dikes and sills.
The occurrence consists of a mineralized shear developed subparallel to the strike of the sedimentary rocks. The shear has been exploited in four adits over a vertical range of about 180 metres. It is about 60 to 90 centimetres wide in the upper levels of the mine and averages 1.5 metres on the No. 4 level. The shear is composed essentially of crushed wallrock containing bands and disseminations of sulphides within a matrix of coarse calcite or siderite in the lower levels of the mine. Coarse, cubic argentiferous galena is the dominant sulphide mineral. It occurs with sphalerite and a trace of pyrite in bands and lenses up to a metre thick in the upper levels of the mine.
Production from the property between 1894 and 1954 yielded 548,378 grams of silver, 147,499 kilograms of lead, 4946 kilograms of zinc and 31 grams of gold from 357 tonnes mined.
