The Ethel past-producing mine is situated northeast of the summit of Trout Mountain, between 1800 and 1900 metres elevation, overlooking Humphries Creek. It is reached by a switchback logging road that connects the property to the settlement of Trout Lake, 4 kilometres to the northeast.

Regionally, the area is underlain by schists, phyllites and quartzites, with minor greenstone, of the Cambrian to Devonian Broadview Formation (Lardeau Group), intruded by the late Cretaceous ‘Trout Lake’ stock. The metasediments have been tightly folded and strongly sheared in northwest-trending folds that are broken into panels by northwest- and north-trending faults. Unconformably overlying these rocks are conglomerate, limestone and sandstone of the Upper Mississippian to Pennsylvanian or Permian Milford Group. The Middle Jurassic Kuskanax Batholith, an aegirine-augite–bearing leuco-quartz monzonite, lies 5 kilometres to the south of the property. Also within the region is a series of Jurassic to Cretaceous calc-alkaline stocks that includes the Trout Lake stock, which has been dated at 76 Ma by potassium-argon on biotite (Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy January 1983).

The Broadview Formation (Lardeau Group) includes light-grey to black aphanitic argillites, very fine grained grey to tan phyllites and green to brown biotite-chlorite-sericite schists with prominent segregated quartz layers or lenses. Quartzite units are medium- to coarse- grained and impure, occurring in lensoidal beds; a carbonate unit is composed of massive to banded grey to white limestone and dolostone with variable skarn development. Milford Group rocks unconformably overlie the Lardeau Group and consist of a basal conglomerate overlain by shale, siltstone, phyllite and schist interlayered with sandstone, quartzite and limestone units.

The schistosity of the Lardeau Group rocks follows a regional northwest trend, dipping steeply northeast. First phase folding, recognized only locally, has been largely obliterated by a second phase. The dominant second phase fold axes trend northwest, with nearly horizontal to undulating moderate plunges. Folding, as outlined by carbonate horizons, varies from tight and isoclinal in the Lardeau Group to more open in the Milford Group rocks.

Regional metamorphic grade in the phyllite and schists of the Lardeau Group increases from north to south, with chlorite, biotite and finally garnet/oligoclase appearing as the Kuskanax Batholith is approached. There is a suggestion of an underlying arm of the batholith along an anticlinal axis, with intrusive apophyses manifesting themselves as dikes at surface. Superimposed on this regional metamorphic gradient is a thermal biotite hornfels surrounding the Trout Lake stock.

Locally, at the Ethel occurrence, a series of closely spaced quartz veins are hosted in dark-grey phyllites and limestones. A layer of fine-grained limestone 15 to 23 metres thick contains the principal vein lodes; however, some veins extend beyond the limestone into the phyllite. The veins strike 130 to 155 degrees and dip 60 degrees northeast, essentially parallel to the schistosity of the phyllites. The quartz, containing scattered grains of galena, sphalerite, freibergite, pyrite and tetrahedrite, forms lenses up to 46 centimetres thick following the schistosity. The lenses have mostly been mined out, but judging from surface exposures and small underground stopes, they formed en echelon bodies with an average dip of 40 degrees to the northeast. The old workings passed from one lens to the next, giving the appearance of a single continuous vein.

In 1964, surface samples of vein outcrops yielded up to 4350 grams per tonne silver and 7.44 per cent lead over 45 centimetres, whereas a sample from the top crosscut assayed 153.9 grams per tonne silver and 5.82 per cent lead over 30 centimetres (Property File - K.G. Sanders [1975-07-07]: Geological Report on the Ethel Property).

In 1965, underground sampling of the levels yielded up to 1012 grams per tonne silver over 0.9 metre from the FW vein on the no. 1 level, 2930 grams per tonne silver over 1.02 metres from an ore pass between the no. 1 and 2 levels, 1522 grams per tonne silver and 5.82 per cent lead over 3 metres from the no. 1 vein on a stope between the no. 1A and 2 levels, 20 914 grams per tonne silver over 0.3 metre from the no. 1 vein on the no. 2 level, 3343 grams per tonne silver over 0.75 metre from the FW vein on the no. 4 level and 4538 grams per tonne silver over 0.45 metre from the FW vein in the no. 6 level, whereas the no. 1 vein on the no. 6 level yielded 823 grams per tonne silver over 0.58 metre (Property File - Rexony Mining Co. Ltd. [1965-07-01]: Composite Assay Plan - Ethel Mine). Also at this time, a specimen sample of massive freibergite assayed 7.5 grams per tonne gold, 31 140 grams per tonne silver, 34.85 per cent lead and 6.60 per cent copper (Property File - K.G. Sanders [1975-07-07]: Geological Report on the Ethel Property).

In 1975, a chip sample across 0.6 metre of a vein outcrop yielded 0.9 gram per tonne gold and 3528 grams per tonne silver, whereas dump samples yielded up to 8164 grams per tonne silver, 0.52 per cent lead and 5.52 per cent copper (Property File - K.G. Sanders [1975-07-07]: Geological Report on the Ethel Property).

The 1965 sampling of the main adit level is reported to have averaged 1197 grams per tonne silver from 50 samples over a 72-centimetre width and 15-metre vertical distance, yielding an indicated or possible ore resource of 1633 tonnes between the surface and the no. 1 level (Property File - K.G. Sanders [1975-07-07]: Geological Report on the Ethel Property).

The Ethel group, comprising the Ethel, Esther, May Day, Frances and Noel claims, was located in 1898 on a silver-lead rich vein lode. In 1902, the property was purchased by a Philadelphia-based company and, after lying idle for 4 years, the mine was worked on a small scale, resulting in a shipment of 480 sacks of high-grade ore to the Trail smelter. Mining continued intermittently until 1918, resulting in a total production (from 1899 to 1918) of 74 tonnes of ore yielding 377.8 kilograms of silver and 8045 kilograms of lead.

Underground development of the vein system extends over a vertical range of 50 metres and consists of one crosscut adit and seven drift adits, the longest of which is 90 metres.

There was no mining activity after 1918 and the Crown-granted claims reverted. In the summer of 1965, the ground was restaked by Rexony Mining Co. Ltd., and a road was built connecting the property to an existing logging road. The workings were mapped and sampled and, in June 1966, three holes, totalling 236 metres, were drilled below the main showings but failed to intersect the downward projection of the mineralized zone. The no. 3, 5 and 7 level workings were reported to be inaccessible. In 1978, Cominco Ltd. staked the surrounding area and conducted detailed geochemical surveys, during 1979 through 1981, across the surrounding terrain.