The Slocan Prince property, comprising the Slocan Prince (Lot 582), Two Friends (Lot 1020), Black Prince (Lot 584), Bank of England (Lot 2214) and Moonraker (Lot 8939) Crown granted claims and fractions, is situated at the head of Crusader Creek, 10 kilometres east of Slocan. Access to the property from the Slocan highway is via the Lemon Creek and Crusader Creek roads.
This property was among the first staked in the Slocan City mining division and much work was done on it prior to 1900. The first production recorded was in 1896 from the Two Friends claim and this consisted of 36 tonnes of ore averaging 10,000 grams per tonne silver and 50 per cent lead. The Slocan Prince and Black Prince had greater output, especially in the years 1901, 1905 and 1906 when ore shipments from these claims ranged to several hundred tonnes. Total ore production from the property up to 1970, amounts to 1906 tonnes containing 7,045,304 grams of silver, 128,781 kilograms of lead and 11,852 kilograms of zinc.
The property is underlain by coarse-grained, porphyritic phases of the Nelson batholith. Granite and monzonite are the most common rock but locally more basic phases of this intrusion are present. These granitic rocks are traversed by a few acid and basic dikes and many faults and shear zones, along which mineralization has occurred.
The workings comprise seven or more crosscut adits driven northerly to northwesterly and distributed from west to east across the claim group. The workings develop, principally, two fissure- vein systems referred to as the North and South lodes. The North lode outcrops on both the Bank of England and the Two Friends claims and has been traced for about 450 metres in an easterly direction, almost parallel with the north and south boundaries of these claims. The north lode is intercepted by two adits on the Bank of England claim and, farther east, by two or three adits on the Two Friends claim. The lode strikes 060 to 070 degrees and dips steeply northwest. In the Bank of England workings, the mineralization is about 0.5 metre wide, nearly continuous for about a hundred metres, and consists of quartz with some calcite carrying galena, sphalerite and probably high-grade silver minerals. The lode intersects and slightly displaces a small basic dike. The Two Friends adits are situated about 135 metres to the east of the Bank of England workings by the west boundary of the claim. These adits are crosscuts to the North lode that is 1 to 3 metres wide, containing a well defined galena-sphalerite rich ore body, varying in width from a narrow streak to 35 centimetres.
The South lode is exposed in the workings on the easterly claims of the group. A crosscut adit driven 130 metres on the Slocan Prince claim intercepts this lode which strikes 020 to 030 degrees and dips 60 degrees northwest. The lode, which is about 6 metres wide, has been drifted on for more than 120 metres. The ore occurs on both walls, but mainly along the footwall. A second adit on Black Prince ground is a crosscut for 39 metres, beyond which it follows the lode for about 120 metres. The lode is a strongly crushed zone as much as 10 metres wide. Abundant quartz partly cements and replaces the crushed rock and forms veins in places. Ore minerals occur both as disseminations and concentrations included in and associated with quartz, some siderite, and a little calcite. They comprise argentiferous galena, sphalerite, tetrahedrite, pyrite, some native silver and possibly other silver-rich minerals. No appreciable gold occurs in the ore.
In 1994, Pacific Golden Spike Resources Ltd. conducted drilling and sampling.
