On the Belle Aire, a quartz vein in mica and garnet schists of the Mississippian to Lower Permian Milford Group strikes parallel to the foliation of the schists. The vein is 45 centitmetres wide at the portal but becomes narrow and lenticular in the adit. The hanging wall is a fault plane with slickensides parallel to the dip. Ore consists of galena and sphalerite occurring as small lenses. Four tonnes were mined in 1950 and 249 grams of silver, 327 kilograms of lead and 28 kilograms of zinc were recovered.

The early history of the development of this mineralized vein, outcropping just above the Coffee Creek bridge on the Nelson-Kaslo highway, is not clear. Apparently the Belle Aire claim is a relocation of an earlier Crown-granted claim, either the Blizzard or the Sunnyside. Exploration work on the Blizzard claim in 1917 consisted of a 10 foot tunnel, a shallow shaft and two open cuts. An adit visa to have been collared at creek level to explore the vein or depth.

In 1950, S. Hallgren staked the Belle Aire claim astride Coffee Creek, adjacent to the bridge. He worked the property intermittently until 1958. An old adit, which had been collared above the high-water mark on the north side of the creek, was extended to a length of 37 metres. Another adit, 9 metres vertically above, was driven for 6 metres.