The Hope Silver occurrence is located in the Kitsumkalum Valley, 4 kilometres southeast of Sand Lake and 52 kilometres north of Terrace, B.C. The old workings are in the central region of the Silver Ghost property.
The area is underlain by northeast striking, moderately north- west dipping siltstones and greywackes of the Jurassic to Cretaceous Bowser Lake Group. The sediments are intruded by andesite and quartz monzonite dikes.
A 6 to 9 metre wide breccia zone, bounded by 0.3 to 0.6 metre wide quartz veins, follow a northeast striking, southeast steeply dipping shear zone within the sediments. The quartz veins are exposed for about 100 metres and are mineralized with pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite and tetrahedrite. A 4.5 metre chip sample assayed 432 grams per tonne silver, 6.7 per cent zinc, 1.9 per cent lead, 0.76 per cent copper and trace gold (Geology, Exploration and Mining in B.C. 1969).
Shear zones of similar strike and dip, with associated quartz- breccia veins occur over several hundred metres southeast of the main showing.
In 1966, 5 tonnes of sorted ore were shipped from this property. From this ore 7,527 grams of silver, 151 kilograms of copper, and 292 kilograms of lead were recovered. In 1990, Equity Silver Mines Limited conducted a geophysical program consisting of electromagnetic (VLF-EM) and magnetic surveys on the Silver Ghost claim group. Three conductive trends were identified from the surveys. Equity Silver followed up with a soil survey over the sample grid in 1992, but was unsuccessful in finding significant anomalies.
During the period from 1995 to 1998, three diamond drill holes surrounding the main showing failed to intersect significant mineralization.
In 2003, J. W. Moll drilled one X-Ray hole approximately 130 m east of Hope Silver to a depth of 36.0 metres to test the on-strike continuity of the “Hope” breccia vein. Drill hole SGO3-01 encountered a sedimentary sequence of interbedded siltstone and greywacke with minor feldspathic lithic arenite over its entire length. Blebs and patches of chalcopyrite, sphalerite and galena in the quartz breccia and quartz vein were encountered in the top 5.0 metres of the hole. At 27.4 metres there is an interesting occurrence of fine grained pyrite-pyrrhotite in an 8 mm wide band that has the same orientation as the bedding. The band is also strataform with a pyrrhotite core and pyrite margins. No alteration of the host sediments was observed (Assessment Report 27282).
In 2007 a 5.5 metre continuous chip sample was taken in 2007 by Strategic Metals Ltd. where the zone is exposed in a creek bed that flows through an old glory hole. The sample assayed 2.57 per cent lead, 7.30 per cent zinc, 1.71 per cent copper, 431 grams per tonne silver and 0.034 grams per tonne gold . This was followed up in 2008 by drilling of two BTW holes totalling 141.3 metres. The two holes intersected the Hope Silver showing down the dip of the surface showing at depths of 8 and 16 metres from surface. Drill Hole SG08-01 intersected 0.05 grams per tonne Au, 29 grams per tonne Ag, 0.13 per cent Cu, 0.30 per cent Pb and 0.79 per cent Zn over 3.1 metres; SG08-02 intersected 0.05 grams per tonne Au, 7 grams per tonne Ag, 0.16 per cent Cu, 0.04 per cent Pb and 1.32 per cent Zn over 5.1 metres (Assessment Report 30468).
In 2017 J. W. Moll drilled 22.56 metres of EW core in one hole approximately 120 metres north of the Hope Silver workings. The hole was drilled in a rock similar to the rock near the Hope Silver occurrence. Although the assays were not promising, the abundance of quartz carbonate and quartz breccia from 20.7 metres to the end of the hole could indicate an extension to the the Hope Silver mineral showing.
