The Victoria occurrence is located at 1036 metres elevation west of Jolly (Rock) Creek, 3.5 kilometres east of the Cariboo-Amelia (082ESW020) of the historic Camp McKinney. Bridesville, British Columbia lies 8.5 kilometres to the south-southwest.
The Victoria (Lot 218) and Old England (Lot 658) were the two producing Crown-granted claims of the former Old England claim group. The Lemon (Lot 760, 082ESW223) and Snowdon (Lot 583) Crown grants were also part of the former Old England claim group. The initial discovery of gold in the vicinity of the McKinney camp was made on the Victoria occurrence in 1884.
The Victoria occurrence is hosted by a sequence of metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks of the Carboniferous to Permian Anarchist Group. To the north are granite and granodiorite of the Okanagan batholith. Granite of the Middle Jurassic Nelson intrusions occurs to the southwest. Eocene Penticton Group volcanic and sedimentary rocks overlie locally sheared amphibolite and serpentinite bodies to the east.
Recent geological mapping has described the hostrocks of the Victoria occurrence are fine grained foliated diorite, which is difficult to distinguish from mafic volcanics (Assessment Report 19476). The diorite is in fault contact with mafic volcanics, argillite, chert and minor limestone of the Anarchist Group. Immediately to the northeast is Proterozoic Grand Forks gneiss. Both units have been intruded to the northwest by diorite of the Cretaceous to Tertiary Okanagan Batholith.
At the Victoria occurrence, mineralization is confined to a 4 to 50 centimetre quartz vein striking 170 degrees and dipping 60 degrees east. Below the vein is a light green, fine grained diabasic (diorite) rock. Pyrite, sphalerite and auriferous galena occur in this vein. The vein is hosted by a fault zone which cuts gently dipping greenstone. The hostrock is calcareous greenstone which also contains lenses of black argillite. With depth, a sequence of dacite and rhyodacite volcanics, light grey to green in colour, are present. Alteration consists of carbonate and silicification with minor green micas, talc and sericite.
At the adjoining Old England, mineralization is associated with a shear zone 25 metres wide in greenstone. The shear zone strikes 010 degrees and dips 72 degrees to the southeast. It contains three parallel quartz-calcite or quartz-dolomite veins 0.6 to 6 metres wide which strike north and have an easterly dip. The veins, traceable over the entire length of the claim, host galena, sphalerite, pyrite and chalcopyrite. At 22 metres depth, the centre or main vein was composed of 25 to 45 centimetres of talc fault gouge in the hangingwall, followed by 61 to 91 metres of ore. The hangingwall is composed of talc, carbonate, clay and quartz intermixed with sulphides and auriferous galena. The east vein is exposed in outcrop over 15 metres strike length and is exposed to the north on the former neighbouring Homestake claim. Host greenstones are brecciated in both the hangingwall and footwall and contain disseminated pyrite. In 1981, three quartz, pyrite and galena veins were intersected at 39.17, 39.87 and 41.25 metres below the main vein, respectively in drillhole 81-01. The zone of veins occurred 12.87 metres below the expected projection of the main vein while drillhole 81-02 intersected the zone 5 metres above. The west vein is up to 1.2 metres wide and carries galena and other sulphides. Other quartz and feldspar veins 2 to 3 centimetres wide occur throughout the greenstone but are reported unmineralized. Randomly oriented calcite veins less than one millimetre in width associated with pyrite mineralization also occur locally.
On the Victoria, development consists of two tunnels driven along the footwall from which drifts and raises are run. Tunnel No. 1 was 41 metres long. The second tunnel (No. 2) was 213 metres to the north, near the Victoria-Old England claim boundary. The tunnel was driven for about 31 metres. Total underground work is reported to be 360 metres. In 1894, a 33-metre inclined adit had been sunk on the Victoria, from which some very rich ore is said to have been taken. A 544-kilogram and a second 45-kilogram shipment are reported to have been made to Selby Smelting Works of San Francisco (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1894, page 754). A trial shipment of 22.6 tonnes sorted ore in 1897, graded 73.7 grams per tonne gold and 178.2 grams per tonne silver (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1897, page 607).
Development on the Old England consists of a series of opencuts and tunnels. One major incline has been sunk at the footwall to a depth of 21 metres. The incline was sunk to intersect a telluride, gold, silver ore chute hosted in talcose schist.
On the opposite side of the creek and downstream from the adit, a short adit has been driven in on a shear zone for 15 metres. The zone is about 61 centimetres wide, strikes north and dips 70 to 80 degrees east. Only narrow quartz stringers and kidney quartz were found along the shear. The zone appears to be parallel with the vein zone of the Old England and Victoria. The hostrock was calcareous greenstone.
The occurrence has received considerable exploration interest since 1979. At that time, the property was owned by A. Hook and C. Heady, later under Conkle Lake Mines Ltd. In 1981, Norwest Resource Consultants conducted an exploration program for Cheshire Exploration, on the Victoria occurrence. The program included four diamond-drill holes. Additional exploration was conducted by Durfeld Geological Management Co., in 1983. Work included underground development on the No. 2 Tunnel, limited surface mapping, trenching and diamond drilling. In 1986, an additional two drillholes were drilled, totalling 62.8 metres. Drillhole 86-1 intersected 1.2 metres of 3.77 grams per tonne gold and 16.11 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 15256) from 8.2 to 9.4 metres depth. A geophysical exploration program was conducted in 1988. In 1989 and 1992, diamond drilling was conducted on the Old England and Victoria claims. A total of 14 holes and 1396.5 metres were drilled. In 1989, drillhole JOL-03 in the vicinity of the Victoria adit, yielded 1.8 grams per tonne gold, 5.4 grams per tonne gold, 0.99 per cent zinc and 1.02 per cent lead (Assessment Report 19476). In 1992, a new shear zone hosting quartz veins was drilled on the Old England claim. The best results from drilling on this new shear zone were 1.54 grams per tonne gold over 1.07 metres to 64.28 grams per tonne gold over 15 centimetres (Assessment Report 22323). Intersections were over 6.10 to 15.24 metres depth on mineralized quartz veins.
