In 1970, the Lucky Strike property was staked by M. Swetz after he discovered copper mineralization in the ballast quarry immediately south of the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks at Walhachin.

The showings occur in and around the ballast quarry. Fine disseminations, blebs and fracture coatings of chalcopyrite and bornite, with minor sphalerite locally, are generally associated with magnetite and hematite. The mineralization occurs in skarn alteration zones in volcanics, related pyroclastics and sediments of the Upper Triassic Nicola Group. Alteration mineralogy consists of epidote, garnet, magnetite, hematite and calcite with some degree of silicification. Traces of malachite stain have been found up to 487 metres east of the quarry and 1219 metres west of the quarry. The Nicola rocks comprise interbedded andesites, greenstones, agglomerates, tuffs and limestone.

In 1970, Fort Vermilion Resources Ltd. completed geological, geochemical and magnetometer surveys. In 1972, Hart River Mines Ltd. conducted a soil sampling survey.