The Colonial property is situated on Reverted Crown grant Lot 5313 at 1768 metres elevation above sea level in the Slocan Mining Division. The property is on the east side of the ridge that separates Cody and Sandon creeks.
The claims extend from the creek, at the 1310-metre elevation, to the summit of the north trending ridge at an elevation of about 1981 metres. The Airdrie Fraction, Freddie Lee (082FNW055), Colonial, and Cristein (082FNW254) claims are located from north to south near the crest of the ridge. The Chicago No. 2, Chicago Fraction, and Pullman Fraction claims (082FNW194) cover the ground down slope from the Colonial and Freddie Lee.
The Colonial claim (Lot 5313) was owned and intermittently explored by A.D. Coplen, of Spokane, from about 1906. In 1928 the Colonial, Freddie lee, Cristein, Airdrie Fraction, and Nellie claims were acquired under option by W.G. Wasmandorff of Vancouver. The Cristein claim (Lot 5369) had been Crown-granted to Messrs. McDonald and Taylor in 1904; the Airdrie Fraction (Lot 9832) had been Crown-granted to Messrs. McAllistar and Bigney in 1910. Colonial-Slocan Mines, Limited, was incorporated in May 1929 to acquire the claims and carry on exploration work. Work by the company ended in January 1930 and the company charter was surrendered in 1932.
The workings on these claims include 9 or more short adits and several raises and intermediate levels. The upper 4 adits explore the Freddie Lee vein down dip. The lower adits comprise the principal workings on the Colonial and Chicago No. 2 claims.
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 property is underlain by sedimentary rocks of the Slocan Group which form a broken syncline composed chiefly of massive quartzite and limestone just west of the occurrence. To the east, the syncline is faulted against another broader syncline in which the strata dip generally to the east. The core of this syncline is occupied by slate and argillite. The occurrence is hosted within limestone beds of the eastern synclinal structure.
The occurrence consists of a fissure vein striking 025 degrees and dipping 50 degrees southeast. The vein has been explored with at least four adits on the Colonial property and the underground workings extend northeast across the Freddie Lee Crown grant (Lot 475) all the way to the Airdrie Fraction Crown grant (Lot 9832). Galena and sphalerite are associated with narrow crossfissures striking due east and dipping vertically. The vein was only a few centimetres wide but carried nearly massive galena and sphalerite with a little quartz. This vein does not correlate with the vein found at higher elevations on the Freddie Lee property (082FNW055).
Production from the Colonial property between 1906 and 1981 yielded 558,578 grams of silver, 134,246 kilograms of lead, 15,092 kilograms of zinc and 62 grams of gold from 306 tonnes mined.
During 2007 through 2009, Klondike Gold Corp. completed programs of prospecting, soil sampling and trenching on the area.
