The Legate East occurrence is located on a ridge that separates Legate Creek from the Zymoetz River about 41 kilometres northeast of Terrace.

The area is underlain by andesites of the Jurassic upper Telkwa Formation (Hazelton Group) which have been cut by quartz porphyry dikes and sills. Locally, andesites host chalcopyrite, bornite and tetrahedrite mineralization.

In 2005, two samples taken by the British Columbia Geological Survey assayed up to 0.256 gram per tonne gold, 166.0 grams per tonne silver and 4.28 per cent copper (Assessment Report 31853).

During 2009 through 2013, Casa Minerals completed programs of geological mapping and geochemical sampling on the area as the Pitman property (103I 046).

The Legate East showing became part of J2 Syndicate Holdings Ltd's Empire property in 2016, during which time a SkyTEM airborne electromagnetic survey was flown, followed by an extensive rock sampling program (139 samples). Rock grab samples ranged from below detection limit to 16.4 g/t gold, 36,875 g/t silver, 27.6% copper, 33.9% lead and 29.98% zinc. Two Trends were discovered during the 2016 field season: Inca and Babylon. The north-south striking Inca Trend (1.6 by 1.2 kilometres) includes three zones: Metallica, Metalworks and Olympus. Approximately 3 kilometres southeast of Inca, the 1.6 by 1 kilometre Babylon Trend is subdivided into three areas for Minfile reporting purposes (Babylon North, Babylon South and Babylon West). The Legate East showing is approximately 4 kilometres southwest of the Babylon Trend.

Exploration on the Empire property continued in 2017 with Juggernaut Exploration as operator. Field mapping and sampling (379 channel, 488 chip/grab, 1 talus fine and 22 silt). Much of this work led to the expansion of the Inca Trend mineralization. Mapping at Metallica showed the mineralization is thought to be associated with chlorite, iron-carbonate and quartz veining and may be consistent with an extensional fault system. Mineralization shows a spatial association with strong propylitic-altered felspar porphyry intrusives and there is a distal pervasive propylitic alteration. The northern boundary of current known extent of Au mineralization is marked by a prominent east-trending brittle-ductile fault and the NNW structural corridor is bounded to the west by a moderately dipping NNW trending fault (Assessment Report 37539).

Property wide LiDAR and airborne geophysical surveys, ground IP surveys (including Metallica in the Inca Trend), geological mapping, alteration studies, channel sampling (61), chip/grab rock sampling (544) and prospecting was conducted over the Empire in 2018, while 3209 metres of drilling focused on mineralized zones in the expanded Inca Trend (Assessment Report 38018).

In 2019 a comprehensive report was completed on the Empire property and a small drill program focused on the southern end of the Inca Trend (Rockstar showing) (Assessment Report 38978).