The Black Bear occurrence is located at 1019 metres elevation, on the Black Bear Reverted Crown grant (Lot 10783). The Reverted Crown grant lies northeast of the junction of Carlyle Creek with Keen Creek and adjoins the eastern edge of the Liberty, 082FNW093. Kaslo, British Columbia lies 15 kilometres to the east.
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.
Immediately west 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 sedimentary sequence has been affected by contact metamorphism from the emplacement of the nearby Nelson intrusions.
In 1920, work by G.B. Gerrard was started on restoring the old workings of the Black Bear occurrence, which included a 10.6-metre shaft, a short crosscut adit below and an opencut above the shaft.
The workings intersected a vein that appeared to follow the bedding of contact metamorphosed, slaty argillites of the Slocan Group on the eastern edge of the Middle Jurassic Mount Carlyle stock. The stock is composed primarily of potassium feldspar porphyritic granite. The vein width varied from 30 to 45 centimetres and hosted galena, pyrite and minor sphalerite mineralization in a quartz gangue. The strike of the vein is 065 degrees and the dip is 67 degrees southeast.
A 48-centimetre chip sample taken near the bottom of the shaft in 1920 yielded 2.74 grams per tonne gold, 181.7 grams per tonne silver, 15 per cent lead and 3.6 per cent zinc (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1920, page 123).
Production records for the Black Bear occurrence indicate 5 tonnes of ore was mined in 1922 from which 1866 grams silver and 944 kilograms lead were recovered.
Cream Minerals Ltd. optioned the property in late 1997. A grab sample assayed 101.2 grams per tonne silver, 7.76 per cent lead, 12.82 per cent zinc, and 0.23 grams per tonne gold (GCNL #182 (September 22), 1998).
In 2013, Agave Silver Corp. examined the area as the Kaslo property