Diatomite-bearing sediments of the Skonun Formation outcrop along the Yakoun River, 2.5 to 3 kilometres west-southwest of New Year Lake and about 13 kilometres south of Port Clements.

Clastic sediments of the Tertiary Skonun Formation underlie a broad region of low relief comprising the Queen Charlotte Lowland on northeastern Graham Island. To the west, the sediments are separated from Tertiary and older volcanics underlying hilly and mountainous terrain of the Queen Charlotte Ranges by the northwest trending Sandspit fault.

The showing is hosted in a sequence of recessive, poorly indurated sandstones and shales of the Miocene Upper Skonun Formation (unit 2, Geological Survey of Canada Paper 90-10, pages 337-371). This sequence is interpreted to have been deposited in a tide- dominated shallow marine shelf environment (Geological Survey of Canada Paper 90-10, Assessment Report 25676).

Six shale samples collected at a river-side cliff exposure and at several roadcuts 600 metres southwest and 700 metres south- southwest of the river exposure contained trace too abundant diatom fragments. Three samples of light grey very porous shale, medium grey extremely porous, well-indurated silty shale and medium grey very porous, sandy-silty shale from the three sites contained abundant mesh patterned diatom fragments up to 0.06 mm in size. The thickness of these diatom-bearing horizons has not been determined but one bed of diatomaceous clay occurring in the vicinity was previously reported to be 3 to 4 metres thick.

Absorption tests on three samples ranged from 0.52 to 0.81 millilitres per gram for water. One sample also tested 0.55 millilitres per gram for oil absorption (Assessment Report 25676, Appendix 3, Table 1).

This occurrence was sampled and prospected by Homegold Resources Ltd. in 1997.