The Austen occurrence consists of a showing of copper and molybdenum mineralization at the toe of Austen glacier, north of Nine Mile Creek, 8 kilometres west of Franklyn Arm of Chilko Lake. It was found during a mineral resource assessment of the Chilko Lake area (Bulletin 81).

The occurrence is located in a Lower Cretaceous volcanic facies of the Tchaikazan River succession consisting of andesitic to basaltic flows and breccias; lapilli tuff, conglomerate, volcaniclastic sandstone, siltstone turbidites, shale and fine-grained sandstone. Within 1 kilometre to the north, these volcanic rocks are in fault contact with sedimenetary rocks of the Lower to Upper Cretaceous the Taylor Creek Formation. A large granodioritic pluton of the Late Cretaceous to Paleocene Bendor suite intrudes a few kilometres to the west.

The showing consists of chalcopyrite and molybdenite in a branching quartz vein which cuts fractured and hornfelsed volcanic rocks (Bulletin 81). Mafic dikes are subparallel to the fractures. A grab sample of the mineralization assayed 1.8 per cent copper, 0.17 per cent molybdenum, 14 grams per tonne silver, and 0.3 gram per tonne gold (Bulletin 81).

In 1986, the British Columbia Geological Survey Branch conducted a field-program in the Chilko Lake planning area in order to determine its mineral potential. Refer to MINFILE occurrence Rum 2 (092N 009) which occurs about 1.2 kilometres to the northwest of the Austen showing for related geological and work history details.