The Yale Creek area is underlain by schist, amphibolite and minor ultramafic rocks assigned to the Mesozoic Settler Schist. These rocks have been intruded both from the north and south by quartz diorite, diorite and granodiorite of the Early and Middle Cretaceous Spuzzum Intrusions and are bound, to the east, by the Hope fault.

The Queen mine was developed between 1879 and 1898. During this time, over 760 metres of tunnel are reported to have been driven on at least five, one to two-metre wide "quartz fissure lodes" hosted by quartz mica slate. These lodes were said be rich in both silver and gold. One assay from 1885 was recorded as approximately 480 grams per tonne silver (Minster of Mines Annual Report 1885, page 497). A high assay result for gold and silver reported in 1890 seems spuriously high when considering other reports from that era.

Even though a substantial amount of underground development was reported, it is not clear whether or not any commodities were ever recovered from the ore.