The property is located at 914 metres elevation on the south side of Porcupine Creek, about 2 kilometres east of the Salmo River and 3.2 kilometres east-southeast of Ymir. The Nevada property (082FSW064) adjoins to the southwest. The very similar Blue Nellie showing (082FSW065) is just to the north. The property includes the Maple Leaf workings comprising ten short adits and several open cuts.
The Porcupine (Lot 4634), the first claim staked in the Ymir area, was located by Messrs. Lloyd and Thompson in 1895. Considerable work was done in an adit driven in 1897. The Porcupine and Franklin (Lot 4635) were Crown-granted to J.S. Clute in 1901. Claims adjacent to the northwest were Crown-granted that same year to The Rio Grande Gold and Silver Mining Company, Limited Liability; in later years these claims were divided between the Porcupine and adjacent Nevada properties.
In 1925 the Porcupine group, owned by E. Haukedahl, E. Gille, and Nels Peterson, of Ymir, comprised 7 claims including in addition to the above, the Sunrise claim, and the Champagne (Lot 5131) which had been Crown-granted to the Rio Grande company. Exploration work was reported in open cuts and old adits. The Porcupine was reported re-Crown-granted in 1925 to N.H. Peterson. The Franklin, Champagne, and Sunrise (Lot 4385) were re-Crown-granted to Haukedahl and Peterson in 1926.
The property was bonded in 1926 by R.K. Waite for Cleveland Ohio interests. Cleveland Mines, Limited was incorporated in September of that year but no activity was reported other than the shipment of a few tons of ore. Intermittent prospecting and development by Haukedahl and Peterson continued until about 1930; work to date included numerous open cuts and about 129.8 metres of underground work in 5 adits.
Late in 1937 the property was optioned by C. Wolf and E.H. Carlson, of Spokane, who carried out 84 metres of drifting the following year. A Spokane syndicate, Maple Leaf Gold Mining Co. Inc. was organized to continue the development work. In 1939 underground work totalled 49 metres of drifting and 18 metres of crosscutting; an additional 38 metres of drifting was reported in 1944. The company in 1948 held the Ambassador, Easter, and Sun Fr. claims in this vicinity. An adit was driven during the year and a small amount of ore shipped.
Duval International Corporation held the Porcupine and adjacent claims in 1968; geological mapping and sampling was reported.
The Porcupine, Franklin, and Champagne claims were owned in 1976 by I. Urquhart, c/o Cochrane Consultants Ltd. Geological mapping, and sampling of trenches, dumps, and adits was reported in 1976 and 1978.
The area is underlain by Lower Cambrian metasediments near the contact with the southern tongue of the Nelson batholith of the Middle to Late Jurassic Nelson Intrusions. The metasediments comprise quartzite, schist, argillite and slate. These have been intruded by granodiorite and late stage lamprophyre dykes.
Irregular quartz veins occupy steeply dipping shear zones in argillite adjacent to their contacts with granodiorite and are associated with silicified zones. The shear zones are up to 3 metres wide with the best mineralization restricted to less than a metre. At least five veins have been poorly documented on the property. Mineralization consists of pyrite, galena, sphalerite and trace pyrrhotite hosted by quartz gangue. These sulphides occur as disseminations, stringers and small pods. Sulphides, particularly pyrite, also occur as disseminations within the wallrocks of the veins and shears. Width, strike and dip are variable although all of the showings have proven to be limited in size. Traces of chalcopyrite and tin are recorded.
Production for the showings is uncertain; 16 tonnes yielding 31 grams gold, 5381 grams silver and 1052 kilograms copper (which makes origin suspect) is recorded for the Porcupine for 1926; 24 tonnes yielding 72 grams gold, 7216 grams silver, 648 kilograms lead and 1738 kilograms zinc is recorded for the Maple Leaf in 1948; and 69 tonnes of crude ore yielding 31 grams of gold, 5910 grams of silver, 482 kilograms lead and 895 kilograms zinc is reported shipped in 1971 from the Maple Leaf.
A grab sample of quartz containing pyrite and sphalerite (PORC 3) taken in 1988, from the vicinity of the workings at 845 metres elevation, assayed 0.9 grams per tonne gold and 33.4 grams per tonne silver.
