The Silver Bell occurrence is located at 1965 metres elevation in the Idaho basin of Howson Creek. New Denver, British Columbia is located 4.75 kilometres to the northwest. Ground covering the Silver Bell occurrence includes the Silver Bell (Lot 1887) and Hustler (Lot 1888) Crown grants.
The Silver Bell workings are composed of a main adit, about 61 metres vertically above the No. 1 adit of the Idaho occurrence (082FNW007), and several shorter adits. The earliest recorded work on this occurrence occurred between 1901 and 1906. In 1906, the Silver Hustler Mining Company was incorporated and continued development work and mining until 1909. The property was owned by C.E. Towgood and Associates in 1955. J. Nesbitt acquired the property in 1969 and conducted stoping and hand sorting in the old workings. An option was obtained from R. Avison in 1970 by P.J. Heron. This option included the Silver Bell (Lot 1887), Hustler (Lot 1888), Adirondack (Lot 4511), Sandow (Lot 1890), Lone Star No. 3 (Lot 1891) and Hartney (Lot 4864) (082FNW004) Crown grants. Work included 76 metres of drifting in an adit at 1917 metres elevation and geochemical soil sampling. In 1971, the property was obtained by Swim Lake Mines Ltd. The main level of the mine was advanced about 46 metres. Three diamond-drill holes were put in to test for mineralization but results were inconclusive. During 2008 through 2010, Klondike Silver Corp. completed programs of soil and rock sampling, geological mapping and trenching on the area.
The Silver Bell is hosted by steeply dipping argillites, siltstones and quartzites of the Triassic Slocan Group. These metasediments are crosscut by quartz feldspar porphyry dikes.
The Silver Bell lode is the southwestern extension of the Idaho- Alamo lode system (082FNW007 and 082FNW008). The mineralization occurs in a zone of shearing and brecciation up to 1.3 metres wide. The lode has a variable strike from 355 to 066 degrees and dips from 55 to 70 degrees east and southeast. The mineralized zone consists of breccia hostrock in a matrix of calcite, quartz and ankerite? carrying streaks and blebs of galena and sphalerite. Galena occurs as bands with sphalerite or lenses of massive and sheared to coarse-grained galena up to 0.3 metre thick. In general, the lode appears to be closely associated with the hangingwall of a subparallel, quartz feldspar porphyry dike.
Near the face of the main adit the lode has been stoped to about 41 metres height. The ore was hand sorted and roughly jigged before shipment. Production records are incomplete but indicate 303 tonnes have been mined. From this 303 tonnes, 1,379,294 grams of silver, 684 grams of gold and 153,936 kilograms of lead were recovered.
