The Eagle-May Queen quartz vein is located about 1.3 kilometres northeast of Maple Bay on the east side of Portland Canal, 55 kilometres south of Stewart. Drilling in the 1920s established a moderate tonnage of copper ore for this deposit.
The region is underlain by a roof pendant, consisting of volcanic and sedimentary rocks, within the Eocene Coast Plutonic Complex. These pendant rocks have been correlated with Middle-Upper Jurassic Hazelton Group rocks and overlying upper Middle to Upper Jurassic Bowser Lake Group sedimentary rocks (Geological Survey of Canada Open File 3453). The Hazelton rocks consist of variably chloritized pillow and massive andesite and basalt with minor mafic tuffs. The overlying Bowser Lake sediments consist of argillite, siltstone and sandstone with minor chert and limestone. There are two observable phases of folding in the area, an initial north-northeast trending phase followed by a later east-northeast trending phase.
The Eagle-May Queen vein pinches and swells, varying in width from 1.5 to 10.7 metres, strikes northeast for about 1000 metres and dips 80 degrees southeast. The United vein, a small satellite vein about 195 metres to the northwest and adjacent to the Eagle-May Queen's vein south end, strikes northeast for 122 metres parallel to the vein. These quartz veins are hosted in greenstone that strikes northeast and dips 60 to 80 degrees southeast. These conformable relationships suggest the veins may be lenses of volcanogenic massive sulphides similar to the Anyox orebodies (103P 021).
The Eagle-May Queen vein locally contains bands of country rock and mineralization consists of chalcopyrite, minor pyrrhotite and pyrite and trace sphalerite. Rare lenses of cupriferous massive sulphides up to 1.8 metres thick occur in the walls of the vein.
Based on diamond drilling in 1923, indicated reserves are estimated at 473,506 tonnes grading 1.7 per cent copper; and inferred reserves are estimated at 535,189 tonnes grading 1.4 per cent copper (Geology, Exploration and Mining in British Columbia 1970, page 77).
In 1902, the Eagle group of claims was located by W. Noble and first bonded to the Brown Alaska Company, which was developing the adjoining Outsider group and shipping the ore to a smelter operating at Hadley, Alaska. In 1910, the property was again bonded to the Sir Donald Mann interests and a small amount of work done. In 1912, the property was bonded to the Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting and Power Company, which carried out considerable exploration and also extensive diamond drilling over a period of years, but on account of extraneous circumstances returned the property to the original owners. No work has been done on the property since that time. There is an old tunnel at 704 metres elevation near the southwest boundary of the Eagle claim (Lot 578); some stripping and a small amount of open cutting had also been carried out. Several holes were diamond drilled by the Granby company on the Eagle vein between 655 and 945 metres elevation along a horizontal distance of about 274 metres. In 1931, the Eagle, Princess (103P 048), Alexander, Blue Bell (103P 242), Comstock (103P 040) and Star (103O 019) claim group comprised a consolidated block of 23 Crown granted mineral claims. The Eagle, Princess, Alexander, Blue Bell and Star groups were owned by W. Noble and associates, of Stewart. The Comstock group of seven adjoining claims was owned by the estate of H. Flewin and C.B. Flewin. In 1971, Yorkshire Copper Mines Ltd. owned the property and it was examined by C.E. Michener. In 1996, propecting was conducted on the Maple Bay property on behalf of New Dolly Varden Mines Ltd. In 2006, TA Minerals completed an airborne geophysical survey over the Maple Bay area. In 2010, a program of MMI soil sampling was completed on the area. In 2014, a program of geological mapping, geochemical (rock and soil) sampling and a 4.3 line-kilometre ground magnetometer survey were completed on the Coastal Copper claim. In 2018, Golden Opportunity Resources Corp. examined the area as the Maple Bay property.
