The Copper Mountain occurrence is above a glacier at 1850 metres elevation, on a north-facing slope north of Mount Jowett. The showing is near the head of Surprise Creek, a northwest flowing tributary of Ferguson Creek.

In the early 1900s, traces of copper were located in debris below a cliff of chlorite schist, above an alpine glacier near the head of Surprise Creek. By 1912, a 6.7 metres long adit had been driven into the schist at 1844 metres elevation and it was claimed that the rock had an average grade of 0.34 grams per tonne gold, 17.1 grams per tonne silver and 5.7 per cent copper (EMPR AR 1914). These figures were; however, disproved by E.W. Emmens, a government geologist, who found at most a trace of copper in the rocks in the adit. In 1930, the Copper Mountain property was reexamined by the B.C. Mining Syndicate. The Trout Lake area is underlain by a thick succession of sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Badshot Formation and Lardeau Group near the northern end of the Kootenay arc, an arcuate, north to northwest trending belt of Paleozoic and Mesozoic strata that is now classified as a distinct, pericratonic, terrane. The arc rocks are bordered by Precambrian quartzite in the east and they young to the west, where they are bounded by Jurassic-age intrusive complexes. They were deformed during the Antler orogeny in Devonian-Mississippian time and were refolded and faulted during the Columbian orogeny, in the Middle Jurassic. A large panel, the "Selkirk allochthon", was later offset to the northeast by dip-slip motion along the Columbia River Fault.

The Badshot Formation is composed of a thick Cambrian limestone that is a distinctive marker horizon in the Trout Lake area. It is underlain by Hamill Group quartzite, and it is overlain by a younger assemblage of limestone, calcareous, graphitic and siliceous argillite and siltstone, sandstone, quartzite and conglomerate, and also mafic volcanic flows, tuffs and breccias, all of which belong to the Lardeau Group. The rocks are isoclinally folded and intensely deformed, but only weakly metamorphosed. They occur as intercalated beds of marble, quartzite and grey, green and black phyllite and schist. Fyles and Eastwood (EMPR BULL 45) subdivided the group into six formations (Index, Triune, Ajax, Sharon Creek, Jowett and Broadview) of which the lowermost (Index) and uppermost (Broadview) are the most widespread. The Triune (siliceous argillite), Ajax (quartzite) and Sharon Creek (siliceous argillite) are restricted to the Trout Lake area. The Jowett is a mafic volcanic unit.

The Copper Mountain prospect is underlain by folded, deformed and schistose rocks of the Index Formation. They include green, grey to black chloritic and/or carbonaceous schists and intercalated beds of limestone.

In 1912, a short adit driven into a band of chlorite schist was reported to have an average grade of 0.34 grams per tonne gold, 17.1 grams per tonne silver and 5.7 per cent copper. At the same time, a sample, which was supposed to represent the schist over 915 metres of ridge line, was described as assaying 0.34 grams per tonne gold, 85.7 grams per tonne silver and 3.5 per cent copper. It was claimed that the mineralized belt was at least 152 metres wide and up to 457 metres long. However, as noted, E.W. Emmens visited the property that year and disproved these values. He examined the crosscut in detail and found no chalcopyrite, except along some thin quartz filled seams. He sampled the adit walls over 5.5 metres and determined that they contained a trace gold, 20.6 grams of silver but no significant amount of copper. Similarly, a sample taken across the face of the adit, over 1.52 metres, contained a trace gold, 3.4 grams per tonne silver and no signifcant values of copper. Mapping showed that the chlorite schist is a bedded unit, 300 metres average width, that has dark coloured, carbonaceous calc-schist, containing pyrite, on its hanging wall and rusty decomposed phyllitic schist on its footwall. In 1930, the chlorite schist was described as having widely spaced veinlets and small lenses of quartz containing disseminations of bornite and copper carbonate. There is no continuity to the mineralization.

During 2006 through 2009, Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd. completed programs of prospecting, geochemical (soil, silt, talus fines and rock) sampling and an airborne geophysical survey on the area as the Kootenay Arc property.