The Northwind (Old Timer) occurs in slates and schists. There are three veins of broken schistose material with some quartz. By 1899, a crosscut tunnel, 75 metres long, runs into the first of the three veins, on which a drift had been run to the right for 23 metres and to the left for 24 metres. There is in this tunnel a showing of galena. There is a second tunnel about 10 metre long on the same vein. A 1 tonne shipment made in 1899 yielded 2,239 grams of silver.

The Old Timer claim (as shown on Figure 3, Bulletin 53) is underlain by schist of the Mississippian to Lower Permian Milford Group and hornblende shcist and gneiss of the Permian Kaslo Group.