The Dary and Dismuth claims, located on the north side of Cockle (Bear) Creek canyon, were owned in the 1920s by the Tapanila family of Kaslo. The workings included two inclined shafts about 90 metres apart on the Dismuth claim. In 1945, five contiguous claims were staked by R.E. Erdahl and J.E. Pinchbeck in the vicinity of lower Cockle Creek on a northwesterly trend. They were known as the Tin City, Canyon, Old Glory, Cyclone and Erbeck (082KNE016) claims. The Tin City (082KNE071) was staked to cover a showing of tin, beryllium and scheelite mineralization. Claims in the vicinity of the Erbeck claim were Crown-granted in about 1900 (Iron Hand (Lot 5668) and Iron Chief (Lot 5669)). Sipald Resources acquired 12 claims covering much of the area in 1983. Newmont Exploration of Canada Limited optioned the property in 1984. Work by Newmont in 1984-85 included geochemical soil, silt and rock chip surveys, a magnetometer survey, trenching and 794 metres of diamond drilling in 13 holes. During 2007 through 2009, Braveheart Resources Canada Inc. completed programs of prospecting and geochemical (soil and rock) sampling on the area. In 2011, the area was examined by Moose Mountain Technical Services on the behalf of Rainbow Resources Inc. as the Big Strike property.
The area is underlain by coarse clastic rocks of the Upper Proterozoic Horsethief Creek Group. The rocks in the area have been mapped as amphibolite, dolomitic limestone, marble, quartzite and muscovite schist. The amphibolite is possibly a meta-volcanic rock.
Near the Dary and Dismuth workings, grey to brown quartzite with interbedded mica schists strike 150 degrees and dip 60 to 90 degrees southwest or downhill. Intruding the sediments is a large body of quartz gabbro diorite (meta-gabbro). It is massive and jointed and of speckled appearance. Tourmaline, with blue to brown pleochroism, forms large areas. The meta-gabbro dike roughly coincides with the strike of the enclosing sediments.
A milky white quartz vein, on which two shafts have been sunk and several opencuts made, strikes 330 degrees and dips 30 to 80 degrees northeast, cutting the sediments and the dike. It varies from 0.6 to 1.2 metres in width. It is mineralized with pyrite, pyrrhotite, sphalerite and galena. Tourmaline prisms and large masses are common. Where the vein cuts the dike, the amount of tourmaline, pyrrhotite, galena, pyrite and sphalerite increases.
Samples across the vein, taken in 1920 assayed up to 1371 grams per tonne silver, 14 per cent lead and 4.4 per cent zinc (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1920, page 121).
