The black sands of northeast Graham Island were discovered to contain gold as early as 1877. The Cape Fife showing is located 8 kilometres south of Rose Point on the east coast of Graham Island.

In 1906 the black sands were examined and in 1909, 15 hydraulic placer lenses were granted; some sluicing was attempted. In 1910 Sandhurst Gold Mines, Limited, obtained 13 placer leases. In the summer of 1924, 57 test holes 0.9 x 1.5 metres and 1.8 to 4 metres deep were sunk, revealing 2-20 inches of black sand. Assays indicated $1.50 per yard in gold values. Work in 1925 was financed by Tretheway-Tough Mining Syndicate, Limited. Tests showed a recovery of 81 per cent of gold by amalgamation and cyanidation. Assay results ranged from nil to $9.43 a ton of gold in 61 samples. In 1932, Gold Beach Mines, Limited, absorbed the assets of Gold Star Mines, Limited. In a test of the area, 102 cubic yards of workable sand.

Mogul Mining Corporation Limited in about 1956 acquired placer mining leases covering about 88 square kilometres. In June 1957 Lexindin Gold Mines, Limited, acquired from Mogul a 65 per cent interest in the property. Beach sand and cyanide tailings samples were sent to the Mines Branch, Ottawa, in December 1956 and June 1957 for tests for concentrates of magnetite, ilmenite, rutile, and zircon. A chemical analysis of 2 head samples gave averages of 41.48 per cent iron and 8.38 per cent titanium dioxide.

Pleistocene to Recent deposits of unconsolidated to semi- consolidated sands, clays, sandy clays, gravels, conglomerates, and a basal blue-grey glacial clay overlie Tertiary Skonun Formation.

Black sand deposits have a lenticular and varying distribution along the base of bordering beach-bluffs. The black sands, derived from the erosion of the bluffs and subsequent concentration by wave and wind action, contain magnetite, titaniferous-hematite, ilmenite, rutile, zircon, and gold.