The Pinchi Lake mercury mine is located on a prominent limestone hill on the north shore of Pinchi Lake about 25 kilometres from Fort St. James.

The deposit was discovered in 1937 by J.G. Gray of the Geological Survey of Canada. The area was staked in 1938 by A.J. Ostrem and optioned to Cominco. Production first occurred in 1940 with peak production in 1943. Due to the falling price of mercury production ceased in 1944. The mine was reopened in 1968 and operated until 1975 when mercury prices declined.

The deposit is associated with the Pinchi fault which separates Carboniferous-Jurassic Cache Creek Complex (Group) rocks from Upper Triassic Takla Group rocks. Cache Creek Complex rocks which in the area consist of ribbon chert, quartzite, schist, limestone and minor greenstone, all of which have a general northwest strike and a steep northeast dip. Small bodies of serpentinite intrude the Cache Creek rocks. A number of faults, mostly with a northwest trend, occur in the Pinchi fault zone.

Cinnabar mineralization is concentrated in breccia zones along the faults as well as in strata cut by the faults. Known orebodies roughly parallel the bedding and occur mainly in dolomitized limestone beneath bands of impervious schist although some ore is also found in the quartz-carbonate-mica schists. Most of the cinnabar occurs as veinlets and blebs filling pre-existing openings such as fissures, solution cavities and interstices between grains and breccia fragments. The cinnabar is mainly a massive red variety but there is also some bright red earthy cinnabar as well as some crystallized cinnabar. A little stibnite and scattered grains of pyrite have been found.

The south fault, which hosts most of the mineralization, strikes about 320 degrees and dips about 60 degrees west. The faulting style changes from one distinct fault to a group of closely spaced faults 300 metres to the northwest.

Possible resources are 1.1 million tonnes grading 3.2 kilograms per tonne mercury (Cominco Ltd. Annual Report 1992).

In 1965, The Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada Limited completed a geochemical survey on the north-central shoreline of Pinchi Lake. Mercury soil anomalies were observed in the area of the occurrence.

In 2011, Nanton Nickel Corporation completed an exploration program including an airborne helicopter geophysical survey, reconnaissance mapping, prospecting and geochemical sampling over the property containing the occurrence. Four major, magnetic high anomalies were noted on the property. Geochemical sampling was not completed on the area immediately surrounding the occurrence.

In 2012, Nanton Nickel Corporation completed an exploration program including ground mapping, prospecting, soil and rock geochemical sampling and a petrographic study. Rock and soil sampling was not completed on the area immediately surrounding the occurrence.