The Madison-Argenta occurrence consists of two fissure veins some 120 metres apart located on Reverted Crown grant Lots 1411 and 1412 at 1525 metres elevation, on the south slope of Mount Payne, about 0.8 kilometre northeast of Sandon and some 11 kilometres east-southeast of New Denver.
The Madison claim (Lot 1411) was Crown-granted to W.C. Price in 1897. The Argenta claim (Lot 1412) was Crown-granted that same year to P.A. Hanneberg and W.C. Price. The Great Eastern claim (Lot 2289) was Crown-granted to Joseph Eaton in 1898. The Legal Tender claim (Lot 1749) was Crown-granted in 1900 to Messrs. Freeman, Toms, and Wilson. The Madison Extension claim (Lot 5192) was Crown-granted to A. Simons in 1916; this claim was subsequently restaked in part as the Argenta Nos. 1 and 2 claims.
During the initial period of activity each of the veins was opened up by three adits. Development work to the end of 1899 was reported to total 233 metres of tunnel, 29 metres of raising, and 15.8 metres of winze.
The claims were reported to have been held by Slocan Sovereign lines Company, Limited, in the 1920's but no work was reported at that time.
Black Cricket Mines Limited in July 1968 optioned 8 claims from Lorenzo Blondeau, of New Denver, including the four original Crown-grants which comprise Mineral Lease 204.
Regionally, the area lies on the western margin of the Kootenay Arc, in allochthonous rocks of the Quesnel Terrane. In the vicinity of the occurrence, the Quesnel Terrane is dominated by the Upper Triassic Slocan Group, a thick sequence of deformed and metamorphosed shale, argillite, siltstone, quartzite and minor limestone. Rocks of the Slocan Group are tightly and disharmonically folded. Early minor folds are tight to isoclinal with moderate east plunging, southeast inclined axial planes and younger folds are open, southwest plunging with subhorizontal axial planes. The sedimentary sequence has been regionally metamorphosed to lower greenschist facies.
South of the occurrence, the Slocan Group has been intruded by the Middle Jurassic Nelson intrusions which comprise at least six texturally and compositionally distinct phases ranging from diorite to lamprophyre. The most dominant phase is a medium to coarse grained potassium feldspar porphyritic granite. Several feldspar porphyritic granodiorite dikes, apparently related to the Nelson intrusions, also cut the sedimentary sequence near the occurrence (Paper 1989-5).
The claims are predominantly underlain by shale, argillite and graphitic phyllite of the Slocan Group. Several small quartz and feldspar porphyritic dikes cut the sedimentary sequence. Two distinct fault systems are evident on the property. These strike approximately north-northeast and dip nearly vertical.
Mineralization on the property consists of two quartz veins carrying galena and sphalerite. The veins follow fracture zones striking 035 degrees and dipping nearly vertical. Each vein has been explored with three small adits. The Southern or Madison vein is one metre wide at the surface near one of the adits' portal. A grab sample collected from the vein assayed 1.31 per cent zinc, 387 grams per tonne silver and 12 grams per tonne gold (Property File - Report on Madison Claims, Prospectus, Module Resources Inc.). Both veins are exposed near the northwest corner of the Argenta Reverted Crown grant (Lot 1412) and have been traced northeast on to the southwestern part of the Madison Reverted Crown grant (Lot 1411).
Production records are incomplete for the property but 41 tonnes were mined from the Northern or Argenta vein in 1900 to produce 124,941 grams of silver and 3616 kilograms of lead. An additional 18 tonnes were mined in 1898 and 2.7 tonnes were shipped to the Trail smelter in 1911 but recoveries are not known.
