The Surprise showing is located on Rockyrun Creek, approximately 4.5 kilometres south of Moriarty Lake and about 30 kilometres southeast of Port Alberni.

The area is underlain mainly by granodiorite, monzonite and tonalite of the Early to Middle Jurassic Island Plutonic Suite and by lesser volcanics of the Middle Triassic Karmutsen Formation and limestone, tuff and sediments of the Paleozoic Sicker Group. The intrusive rocks are cut by northwest and northeast trending faults, with the older rocks exposed in faulted sections.

Pyrite, chalcopyrite, bornite, tetrahedrite and molybdenite occur as disseminations, blebs and veins in two parallel shears within biotite monzonite and lesser tonalite and diabase dykes. The shears, which trend 135 degrees and dip 70 degrees northeast, are 5 to 20 centimetres wide and intermittently traced for 200 metres, and broken up by crosscutting faults. Alteration minerals in and around the shear zones are malachite, tenorite, pyrite, chlorite and saussurite.

From 1980 through 1987, Canamin Resources completed various exploration programs in the area. These included geological mapping, geochemical sampling, geophysical surveys and diamond drilling. A 1.5 metre drill core sample assayed 3.43 per cent copper, 89.5 grams per tonne silver and 2.7 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 11010).