The Canadian Belle occurrence is situated 1.2 kilometres south of Hall Creek, on the east side of Keno Creek, 13 kilometres south of Nelson.
The area is underlain by Lower Jurassic Hall Formation (Rossland Group) sediments and Elise Formation volcanic rocks. Hall Formation clastic sedimentary rocks overlie the Elise Formation. These have been intruded by the Middle to Late Jurassic Nelson Intrusions.
The Canadian Belle occurrence is situated marginal to the eastern edge of the Bonnington pluton (Nelson Intrusion) on the western limb of a regional syncline. Elise Formation volcanics form a 200 to 500-metre-wide belt of north-striking, east-dipping flow sequences and fragmental rocks sandwiched between the Nelson Intrusions to the west and Hall Formation metasediments to the east. Monzonite to diorite porphyries occur as sill- or dike-like intrusions in the Elise-Hall contact area.
Black argillites are host to numerous faults and fractures of variable orientation. Granite intrudes the stratigraphy south of the showing; locally, the sediments are cut by "tongues" of diorite porphyry. Faults and fractures vary from 1 centimetre to 1.8 metres in width with locally developed gouge zones. Quartz and sulphides have been emplaced at a late stage and locally heal some of the fracture zones. Most prospecting has been done on fractures/shears with a general northeast trend and some mineralized east-west–trending structures. Old workings appear concentrated on a number of closely spaced parallel breaks. The mineralization occurs near the southern limit of the Silver King shear.
Quartz veining in the structural breaks is host to massive (locally, up to 0.2 metre wide) and disseminated arsenopyrite, pyrite, pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite. Mineralization is dominated by arsenopyrite containing microfractures that are healed by pyrite and chalcopyrite. Pyrrhotite occurs as minute inclusions in the arsenopyrite, and grains of free gold less than 1.5 microns in diameter are hosted by arsenopyrite without any obvious relationship to grain boundaries or fractures.
The claims were Crown granted in 1901 and minor production is recorded for 1939 and 1940.
In 1939, the Canadian Belle property was owned and operated by Mike Herman and associates. Intermittent work was carried out, including trenching and underground development. That year, 15.4 tonnes of ore were shipped to the customs mill at Granite Siding. The ore concentrates were shipped to Trail and yielded 342.86 grams of gold and 308.57 grams of silver (Ministry of Mines Annual Report, 1939, page 80).
By 1940, the property was owned by Canadian Belle Mining Company of Spokane, Washington. Mining was conducted that summer, using hand steel for underground work. Development work included 3.6 metres of drifting, 2.7 metres of crosscutting and 121.9 metres of surface trenching. In total, 12.7 tonnes of mined ore yielded 582.86 grams of gold (Ministry of Mines Annual Report, 1940, page 66). As of 1949, the property was still under the ownership of Canadian Belle Mining Company. That year, J. McLellan was contracted to drive a 304.8-metre crosscut to investigate results of the 1948 drill program. The portal was collared on the bank of Keno Creek, 30.5 metres north of the main campsite. Upon completion, the project was abandoned.
In 1984, Goldrich Resources Incorporated acquired the Canadian Belle showing as part of their Hall Creek claim group. A geochemical soil survey was completed over a portion of the property. The following year, an exploration program of geochemical soil and rock sampling was conducted over the Jill 100 claim to the north.
In the fall of 1998, Bluebird Minerals Limited drilled four short NQ diamond drill holes totalling 350.52 metres on the Mammoth showing (MINFILE 082FSW211) to the southwest. Three of the four holes encountered economic grades of copper, molybdenum and gold mineralization.
In 2010, the area including the Canadian Belle occurrence was owned by Anglo Swiss Resources Incorporated as part of the southernmost claim group of the Kenville property. In 2010, on behalf of Anglo Swiss Resources, St. Pierre Geoconsulting Incorporated conducted airborne magnetic and electromagnetic geophysical surveys over the entire Nelson Mining Camp area.
Production totalled 24 tonnes, yielding 840 grams of gold, 280 grams of silver and 23 kilograms of copper.
