The Smitley-Oly is a chalcopyrite-bornite-tetrahedrite–bearing quartz vein and stockwork showing at 1525 metres elevation near Mount Saugstad, about 15 kilometres east of South Bentinck Arm. It is located in the headwater region of an upper tributary to Smitley River, 19 kilometres south-southeast (171°) of Hagensborg, B.C.
The oldest rock unit in the area is a Mesozoic (probably Triassic to Jurassic) assemblage of greenstone and chlorite schist, possibly of the Hazelton Group, with a general northwest strike and steep-to-vertical northeasterly dips. Also represented, in two small areas, are Lower to Middle Jurassic Hazelton Group slate, argillite and conglomerate. These rocks are intruded by a 4 by 5 kilometre triangular Late Cretaceous or Tertiary granodiorite stock. Mineralization appears to be associated with contact zones and small satellitic plugs.
Noranda staked the area as the Snootli and Smitley 1, 2, 3 claims in 1980. It was staked as the Patch group for Queenstake Resources in 1982, and restaked in 1984 as the Aleeta 1-4 (including the Bas and Nus claims). Work that year identified two zones of interest. The South zone is a system of subparallel quartz veins, from a few centimetres to several metres in width, about 4 kilometres south of the Mount Saugstad summit. The zone appears to lie along the southern contact of the Tertiary granodiorite stock. The major vein (Patch vein) strikes 153 degrees and dips 25–30 degrees south, contains pyrite and chalcopyrite and is exposed for a strike length of 1.5 kilometres. A grab sample from the vein assayed 6.24 grams per tonne gold, 58.97 grams per tonne silver and 3.79 per cent copper. The North zone is a large gossan extending southeast from the head of Snootli Creek valley across the summit of Mount Saugstad for a distance of 9 kilometres. A grab sample assayed 1.13 grams per tonne gold, 6.86 grams per tonne silver and 0.43 per cent copper. The Oly 1-4 claims were staked in 1987 by United Pacific Gold, Ltd. to cover mineralization associated with the intrusive contacts of Tertiary granitoids. In 1988 United Pacific conducted geological mapping and rock sampling. An area of molybdenum-bearing stockwork quartz veins are reported in the valley to the north of the South zone and quartz stringers; composed of coarse pyrite, molybdenite and minor chalcopyrite, and varying from 2 centimetres to 0.5 metres in width; are exposed 3 kilometres to the west of this site.
In 2011, Cazador Resources Ltd. completed a small exploration program of 15 rock float samples and four silt samples from small creeks and drainages. Highlights include float sample 1104279, which assayed 2.77 grams per tonne gold, and float sample 1104275, which assayed 0.42 grams per tonne gold, 542 grams per tonne silver and 1.04 per cent copper (Assessment Report 32647).
In 2019 DSM Syndicate Holdings Ltd. performed a geology-rock sampling program on their Gold Run property consisting of 29 rock chip/grab samples and 30 channel samples. The main vein channel sampled over a 2.5 m width resulted in an average value of 3.5 grams per tonne Au (Assessment Report 38981).
