The Death on the Trail vein is on the lower, southeast slope of the Razors Edge, above Hall Creek, a northeasterly flowing tributary of the Duncan River. The Death on the Trail (L.4986), Little Tom and Tommy (L.4985) tenures are on strike to the northwest of the Bannockburn [082KNW051] and Sheila [082KNW052] prospects.
The tenures were owned by the Duncan-Lardo Mining Company Limited in the late 1890s. In the mid 1970s, the ground was owned by J.A.C. Ross and Associates and it was optioned to SEREM Limited in 1977. The company explored the claims as part of a larger tenure holding that included the Sheila prospect. The property was later held by Mikado Resources Limited in a joint venture with Turner Energy and Resources Limited.
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.
The Death on the Trail and Little Tommy claims are underlain by schist, phyllite and quartzite of the Marsh Adams Formation, which is part of the Hamill Group. The rocks are isoclinally folded and deformed, and locally highly schistose. The foliation strikes to the northwest and dips at a steep angle to the southwest. The rocks are in the footwall of the Badshot limestone. The structural and stratigraphic setting is similar to that of the Sheila [082KNW052] and Bannockburn [082KNW051] deposits south of Hall creek. The tenures were staked over stringers of galena in slate. In recent times, they have been included with those of the Sheila property (EMPR ASS RPT 6729) and, although not specifically described, the mineralization is presumed to be similar.
