The Tan and Nio claims are a part of the GQ property, located on a ridge separating the Perry and Anstey Rivers, approximately 16 kilometres south east of the community of Seymour Arm. From 1999 to 2001, an exploration program of prospecting and geochemical sampling was performed.

Regionally, the area is underlain by metamorphic rocks of the Shuswap and Monashee complexes. Metamorphic rocks strike northerly and dip westerly. They are intruded by pegmatite dikes and sills and carbonatite. The Cretaceous Anstey Pluton is located to the west. Local rock types consist predominantly of gneiss and quartzite with lesser amounts of schist, amphibolite, marble and calc-silicate gneiss.

Highly anomalous amounts of niobium have been found in and around the main showing. A grab sample (WP 053), collected in 1999, returned a value of 172 parts per million niobium. Detailed sampling, in 2000, indicated significantly greater niobium content. Samples collected during this program yielded substantially higher values with one sample of the main carbonatite assaying 0.53 per cent Nb2O3. In 2001, sample T-00A, collected across 0.35 metres and along a strike length of 10 metres, returned values of 0.37 per cent Nb2O3. Rock sample T-19B situated 450 metres south- southwest of the main showing yielded 546 parts per million niobium (Assessment Report 26791, 31920).