The Yuen North barite occurrence is located about 5.5 kilometres south of the Kwadacha River and 6 kilometres east of the summit of Mount Yuen, approximately 202 kilometres southwest of Fort Nelson.

Regionally, the rocks of the Gunsteel Formation are the oldest within the Earn Group of Middle to Late Devonian age. They weather to a distinctive “gunsteel” silvery blue and are comprised of carbonaceous and siliceous shale, argillite and cherty argillite. The Gunsteel Formation is the primary group of prospective rocks within the Kechika Trough hosting the Cirque (094F 008), Cardiac Creek (094F 031) and Driftpile (094K 066) deposits. Occurrences of laminar pyrite and nodular barite are common and are characteristic of Gunsteel Formation rocks. They are overlain by the Akie Formation characterized by soft, medium to dark grey phyllic shale to silty shale and siltstone which typically weather to a rusty brown, tan or silvery colour.

In 2014, a rock grab sample (2698746) from thin beds of nodular barite in thinly bedded black Gunsteel Formation shale analyzed greater than 50,000 parts per million (5 per cent) barium (Assessment Report 35251). Some barite laminations occur as off-white seams.

Exploration of the Yuen North property (previously known as the South Kwad property) was limited to the early 1980s by Cominco Ltd. Early work included mapping which outlined a series of nodular, laminar to massively bedded barite outcroppings that occur within the western thrust repeated panel of Earn Group stratigraphy. Subsequent soil sampling programs outlined a prominent barium anomaly with localized lead, zinc and silver anomalies within the western panel that were attributed to the baritic horizons outlined in the mapping.

In 2007, Rio Grande Mining Corp. conducted a program of geochemical sampling, gravity geophysical surveys, prospecting and geological mapping on the area as part of the Kechika property. The following year, Rio Grande completed an airborne magnetic survey on the area. Rock samples from the area yielded up to 0.092 per cent zinc and 0.130 per cent barium (Osmani, I.A., Wilkins, A. (2009-08-26): NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Kechika Properties - Aikie-Sika, Sika, Kwad, Bank, Akie-Sika North, CT Ext, Del, Erin, New Gun-Pesika, Sika, Yuen North and Peskie Claim Groups).

In late June of 2014, Canada Zinc Metals Corp. conducted a short soil sampling program on the Yuen North property. The program was designed to confirm the trends observed in the historical data, obtain a wider suite of elements including known trace elements of sedimentary exhalative (SEDEX)-style deposits and infill and expand upon the known soil anomalies. A total of 222 samples were collected.