The Belle Aire occurrence is located near the north bank of Coffee Creek, approximately 900 metres west of the creek’s mouth on Kootenay Lake.

Regionally, the area is underlain by hornblende schists, limestone and banded quartzite of the Upper Mississippian to Permian Milford Formation and basaltic volcanic rocks of the Carboniferous to Permian Kaslo Group. Granodioritic intrusive rocks of the Middle Jurassic Nelson Batholith are exposed to the west.

On the Belle Aire occurrence, 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 hangingwall 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.

Work History

The early history of the development of this mineralized vein, outcropping just above the Coffee Creek bridge on the Nelson-Kaslo Highway (Highway 31), is not clear. The Belle Aire claim is reported to be 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 3-metre tunnel, a shallow shaft and two opencuts. Another adit is also reported to have been collared at this time on the Sunnyside claim at creek level to explore the vein at depth. This adit was driven for approximately 16.5 metres.

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.

In 1979, David Minerals Ltd. conducted a program of geochemical (stream and silt) sampling on the area as the Peanut Butter claims of the Ainsworth property.

In 1989, South Kootenay Goldfields Inc., on behalf of Dragoon Resources Ltd., conducted a program of prospecting, geological mapping and rock sampling on the area as the Peanut Butter property.

During 2006 through 2009, Kenneth Turner completed programs of prospecting and geochemical (rock) sampling on the area as the Queens Coffee property. In 2011 and 2012, David Wallach prospected and rock sampled the area as the Coffee Creek and Ainsworth properties.