The Valterra1 claim is located on Smelter Creek, approximately 4.0 kilometres southwest of Nelson. It abuts the past-producing Athabasca gold mine (MINFILE 082FSW168), which was first discovered in 1896, and its mill facilities. In 2008, Valterra optioned the Star property and completed claim staking, prospecting and drilling work. In May 2009, Valterra staked various claims including the Valterra1, prior to commencing a field-based exploration program.

Regionally, the area is divided into a sequence of northwest-trending contacts between Early Jurassic Upper Elise Formation volcanic sequences, of up to 500 metres in width, that are intruded by granitic-granodioritic batholitic to apophyses of Middle to Late Jurassic Nelson Intrusions.

In 2009, grab samples from a granodiorite returned anomalous values in gold, copper and zinc with the best result being 0.72 grams per tonne gold in sample 767951 (Assessment Report 31789).