The Aurea showing consists of a 15-60 centimetre galena-bearing quartz vein on the west side of a small ridge, 1.6 kilometres north of the international border and 2.5 kilometres northeast of Rykerts, at 633 metres elevation on the margin of the Purcell Trench south of Creston. It is one of a series of galena-quartz veins in Aldridge Formation rocks found along the east side of the Trench. Although not described in the primary reference (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1956), the geology is inferred to consist of Lower Aldridge Formation equivalent, Ramparts facies (quartzitic wackes and lesser green-grey argillites) as recently compiled in the adjacent area by Brown and Stinson (Fieldwork 1994, page 113). The sedimentary rocks are intruded by gabbro sills of the Moyie intrusions; both these units are of Middle Proterozoic age and belong to the Purcell Supergroup.