The Independent occurrence is located 500 metres west-northwest of the approximate centre of the Alice Arm townsite. The area was explored for base and precious metals between 1918 and 1921.
The area is underlain by Middle to Upper Jurassic Hazelton Group sediments. The sediments dip moderately to steeply southwest and northeast as a result of being deformed into closely spaced northwest-trending folds.
The showing consists of a quartz vein, 0.30 to 1.8 metres wide, hosted in argillite that strikes north and dips 65 degrees west. Locally, the quartz breccia vein contains numerous fragments of argillite. The vein contains pyrite, galena, chalcopyrite and sphalerite in a gangue of quartz and minor calcite. A selected grab sample from a narrow mineralized zone in the footwall of the vein assayed trace gold, 703 grams per tonne silver, 1.0 per cent lead and 7.2 per cent zinc (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1918, page 56).
In 1918, the Independent group of three claims was owned by D.A. McPhail, of Alice Arm. Work done consisted of a tunnel, shaft and some surface stripping. The tunnel, at 198 metres elevation, was driven 15 metres on the vein. Above the tunnel, at an elevation of 213 metres and probably 76 metres from the mouth, a shaft has been sunk to a depth of 4 metres on the vein between two fine walls 1.8 metres apart. The vein has been stripped about 18 metres beyond the shaft, showing it to be practically the same as the top of the shaft.
In 2007 the SNL Enterprises Ltd. exploration program on their Inlet property, north of Alice Arm, consisted of gathering 56 silt samples, 2 heavy mineral samples and 31 rock samples (Assessment Report 30177).
In 2017 an airborne magnetometer survey and geological interpretation were completed for Granby Gold Ltd. on their Tidewater property, north of Alice Arm. In the northeast corner of the property, precious metal occurrences (Wolf, Independent, Arberarder) may be associated with a SSW-trending magnetic high and an open fold structure in Salmon River sediments. Localization of mineralization at intersection of SSW and ESE fractures is a possibility (Assessment Report 36830).
