The Laurion showing is located at about 900 metres elevation on the west side of the West Kettle River, 5 kilometres south- southwest of Beaverdell, north of the confluence of Tuzo Creek with the West Kettle River.
The first record of the Laurion occurrence was in 1927, then owned by G. Bongalis. The property was optioned to the West Kettle River Mining Co. Ltd. Exploration and development continued until 1929. Workings consisted of an opencut and a 161-metre crosscut driven 38 metres above the shaft collar and a second adit driven under the shaft. The shaft was sunk 4.6 metres. In 1970, an exploration program was carried out by Canex Aerial Exploration Ltd. In 1972, the property covering the occurrence has been owned and explored by Argentia Mines Ltd. In 1973, Rio Tinto Exploration Ltd. acquired an option on the property. In 1984, the occurrence was part of a large claim group held by Canstat Petroleum Co. During 2007 through 2009, Intigold Gold Mines Ltd. completed programs of rock and soil sampling and am airborne geophysical survey on the area as the Beaverdell property.
Hornblende granodiorite to quartz diorite of the Middle Jurassic Nelson intrusions is centred on and underlies most of the Beaverdell area. This batholith has been intruded by porphyritic biotite quartz monzonite of the Cretaceous to Tertiary Okanagan batholith and contains remnants of pendants and/or screens of tightly folded metamorphosed volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Carboniferous to Permian Anarchist Group, the oldest unit in this area. These rocks consist of regionally greenschist metamorphosed andesitic tuffs and lavas, mafic intrusions, hornfels and a minor amount of limestone. The Eocene Beaverdell porphyry is a subcircular granitic stock centred 14 kilometres south of Beaverdell. It is mostly exposed on the northeast side of the Kettle River, in the Dominion Creek drainage, west of Boyer Creek and south of the mouth of Tuzo Creek. The stock has been dated by potassium-argon dating on biotite at 49.4 +/- 0.7 Ma. Satellite dikes and the stock itself intrude granodiorite phases of the Okanagan batholith and basal Tertiary rhyolite and conglomerate containing clasts of the Okanagan batholith, in the head waters of the Dominion Creek.
The hostrocks of the Laurion occurrence are andesitic greenstones with felsic banding of the Anarchist Group. These rocks have been intensely deformed, altered and faulted. An opencut exposed two highly oxidized stringers containing specks of galena, sphalerite and pyrite that widens out to 76 centimetres carrying galena and pyrite (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1927, page 234). In the upper crosscut, fractures are filled with calcite and specks of galena, sphalerite and marcasite. Still higher on Cranberry Ridge, segregations of pyrite carry high gold values (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1929, page 259). This mineralization is reported to have yielded gold, platinum and mercury from assays (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1929, page 259). The shaft intersected a 5 to 15 centimetre wide vein. No mineralization was found in the lower crosscut.
The abandoned crosscut and shaft were re-examined by Mahogany Mining Co. Ltd. in 1980 with the following results. Over 18 fault-shear zones with associated quartz veins up to 0.3 metre wide were exposed in the 150-metre long crosscut. Samples yielded low gold however (Assessment Report 20849). Several shafts in the vicinity intersected highly oxidized structures with quartz veinlets but negligible gold (Assessment Report 20849). A sample from the main shaft collar of the Laurion in 1980 yielded 153.28 grams per tonne silver, 2.48 per cent lead and 5.80 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 8504). Another grab from the shaft dump yielded 164.57 grams per tonne silver, 0.51 gram per tonne gold, 3.4 per cent lead and 0.96 per cent copper (Assessment Report 8504).
