The Mogul claim (L. 2857) is 15 kilometres east of Beaverdell and 49 kilometres north of Rock Creek. It straddles the crest of Lake Ridge at the elevation of 1365 metres at the head of Stewartson Creek. The area has been extensively logged resulting in a network of four wheel drive roads. Access to the property is by logging roads from either the main Kettle Valley road to the east or from Beaverdell to the west.
The Mogul claim was staked in 1896, at a time when there was a great influx of prospectors to the Kettle River area. By 1898 there were many stakings on Lake Ridge (Horseshoe Mountain) and considerable surface and near-surface work was done. But by 1901 activity had waned and no attention was paid to this area until 1928. In that year H.E. Hunnings and Company started development on the Mogul claim and in the next year the Mogul Mining Co. Ltd. had acquired many claims in the area but concentrated their efforts on the Mogul and Silver Dollar (L. 2842) (082ESE069), located to the north.
The Mogul showing is a quartz vein up to a metre wide at surface and hosted in quartz diorite. It strikes 60 metres southwest from a shaft where it is cut off by a large basic dike. The shaft was sunk in early days and later deepened to 15 metres. In 1928, an adit, collared on the adjacent Monitor claim (L. 2858) was driven at 290 degrees for 43 metres where a short raise intersected the bottom of the shaft. A crosscut and drift were developed from the base of the shaft. Then a drift from the main crosscut was advanced in a westerly and southerly direction for a total distance of 26 metres, with two diverging tunnels at the end, 11 metres and 6 metres respectively. In the west drift a considerable amount of faulted mineralization, containing occasional values in gold, was followed over a distance of 9 metres. The company decided, after making a shipment of 4 or 5 tonnes of ore to the smelter, to stop work until deeper development could be undertaken. In the latter part of the 1930's the claim was leased and small shipments of ore were made until 1940. Production totalled 212 tonnes, resulting in 9580 grams of gold and 5193 grams of silver.
Mineralization consists of pyrite, pyrrhotite and a little arsenopyrite in silicified quartz diorite, locally, with little true vein quartz. As seen in the shaft, the vein is irregular, in part because of flat faults, and varies from several centimetres to 0.6 metre wide. The shaft area has been extensively mined forming a glory hole.
Early assay results on the vein are reported to range in values up to 132 grams per tonne gold and 21 grams per tonne silver. A sample across 71 centimetres, 3 metres below the collar of the shaft assayed 58 grams per tonne gold and a trace of silver. A sample across 33 centimetres, 15 metres from the portal on a separate zone, assayed 51 grams per tonne gold and trace of silver (Annual Report 1938, page D22).
The area is primarily underlain by quartz diorite related to the Jurassic Westkettle pluton (Nelson Intrusions) and Upper Paleozoic Westkettle volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Anarchist Group. These rocks locally consist of fine grained andesitic tuffs and lava flows, chert and volcanic derived sedimentary rocks with some interbedded limestone trending northerly.
In 1994, Phelps Corporation of Canada, Limited conducted 40-line kilometres of soil sampling in the area.
