The Empire No. 5 occurrence is situated on Reverted Crown grant Lot 1580, at 1646 metres elevation above sea level, in the Slocan Mining Division.

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 Empire No. 5 occurrence is underlain by argillite of the Slocan Group. The beds strike northwest and dip 45 to 60 degrees northeast. Granitic sills, up to 2 metres in width, cut the sedimentary sequence parallel to bedding. An adit was excavated on an east-trending, vertically-dipping shear within the argillite. Samples collected from the dump near the adit indicate that silver-lead-zinc mineralization is associated with pyrite. A grab sample from the dump assayed 685 grams per tonne silver, 27 per cent lead and 22 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 13045).