Placer gold activity is reported to have occurred on Settea Creek although no gold production has been recorded (Bulletin 28, page 56). A placer gold locality on Settea Creek is plotted on Geological Survey of Canada Open File map 2779, just over a kilometre downstream from Settea Lake and about 64 kilometres southeast of Dease Lake.

The area drained by Settea Creek is mainly underlain by Lower Jurassic Inklin Formation rocks (Laberge Group) and Upper Triassic Sinwa Formation (Stuhini Group) limestone. Inklin Formation rocks comprise phyllitic slate, greywacke and conglomerate.

The Settea Lake placer claims follow the active channel of Settea Creek for over 23 kilometres southeast of Turnagain Lake, and are centred on Settea Lake and the southern side of a wide U-shaped valley. Other placer claims in the area follow small tributaries that feed into the main Settea Creek. In 2013, exploration work on behalf of Golden Bear Mining Ltd. was to test prospective gravels locations in the northern part of the property and to test the hypothesis that the source of gold was from the Wade Lake tributary. A series of 1-2 metre deep test pits were dug by hand in the gravels along a meander in the northern part of the property. These gravels were run through a 2-metre-high banker sluice. They were analyzed by ICP and by BLEG (Bulk Leachable Gold) at ALS Minerals Ltd. in Vancouver. Fine and coarse gold was recovered and analyzed under microscope. A series of stream sediment samples were also collected from the tributary between Wade Lake and Settea Lake. These were collected to better understand the distribution of gold on the Settea Lake property. Stream sediment samples were screened, panned sluiced in a 1.5 metre portable sluice. This exploration has found evidence of low grade, gold-bearing gravels on the property. In the southwest, the highest grades are associated with gravels lain on top of sub-horizontal basaltic bedrock; in the northeast of the property, the highest grades were found in a clay-rich bench along a meander in the Settea River (Assessment Report 34949).

From 2008 to 2012 the property was explored by Golden Bear Mining Ltd.; the results of this work are unknown.