The Standard occurrence is located on the southwest flank of Idaho Peak at about 1082 metres elevation. Silverton, British Columbia is located 2.5 kilometres to the west.

The Standard (Lot 564), Alpha (Lot 562) and Emily Edith (Lot 2532) claims form the nucleus the Standard claim group covering the ground hosting the Standard occurrence. These claims were initially staked under separate ownership. Production from the Alpha occurrence began almost immediately from an outcrop containing high- grade galena. The main Standard orebody was not discovered until 1919, in the No. 4 tunnel. By 1913 all the claims had been combined under ownership of the Standard Silver-Lead Mining Company and the mine operated until 1921. From 1921 to 1928 the mine continued to operate under the ownership of Western Exploration Company Limited and worked by various lessees. The mine continued to operate intermittently until 1952 by Western Exploration Company Limited. Operations then ceased until 1959 when various lessees carried out salvage operations. In 1961, Loma Minerals Ltd. held a lease that included the Standard, Mammoth (082FNW060), Monarch and Enterprise (082FNW148) groups. The property was leased by Johnsby Mines Ltd. in the following year and an extensive development program was commenced on the hangingwall branch of the Standard-Mammoth lode system. Three new ore shoots were discovered during a diamond drilling program in a newly collared adit on the east-neighbouring Surprise claim. Production continued until 1966 when the new ore was exhausted. Panoil Canadian Minerals Associates optioned the property in 1967 with further development work on the Mammoth occurrence. Arjan Pacific Ltd. acquired ownership of 32 Crown grants in 1973 which included claims covering the Standard, Hecla and Mammoth lodes. In 1984, Silver Ridge Resources Inc. carried out restoration of the 7-B level on the Emily Edith claim. This included 27 metres of new drift, 183 metres of drift rehabilitation and 46 metres of crosscut rehabilitation. Development work continued from 1986 to 1988 with diamond drilling carried out.

The Alpha claim has been developed by seven adits, the lowest at 1280 metres elevation. A total of 1433 metres of adit development work were carried out. The remainder of the Standard occurrence has been developed by twelve tunnels, including the Y, and Nos. 1, 7, 7-A, 7-B, 7-C and 8. The No. 8 is the lowest at 841 metres elevation. Ore has been found over a vertical range of 610 metres with up to 90 per cent of the ore mined over 152 metres between 1021 and 1173 metres elevation.

The Standard occurrence is hosted by siliceous, carbonaceous and locally calcareous argillite, minor quartzite and limestone of the Triassic Slocan Group. These are intruded by a granodiorite stock and various quartz porphyry and biotite hornblende porphyry dikes. The dikes are highly altered to quartz, calcite and sericite, close to the Standard veins. The structure of these strata is extremely complex owing to intricate folding and faulting.

The Standard lode-fissure consists of a wide, up to 50 metres, shear zone. Underground, the lode has been followed for nearly 2.39 kilometres. While the lode is somewhat sinuous, it strikes about 065 degrees and dips 20 to 80 degrees, averaging 45 degrees. Near the main orebody the lode has a maximum width of 46 metres. The zone has many small offsets and split in north-northeast and east-northeast branches at its eastern extremity. This is where the main orebody was found. The main ore shoot, known as the Big or Million Dollar stope, extends 366 metres vertically downward from the No. 3 level to below the No. 6 level. Other orebodies, which include the I vein, 640 vein, 620 vein and Spur vein, are scattered along the structure. The ore shoots are generally at an angle to the main footwall shear and a sigmoidal shape is reported for some of them, joining the footwall and hangingwall of the structure.

The orebodies occurred generally close to the footwall of the structure and consisted of up to four metres of massive, sheared and coarse-grained galena or up to three metres of massive galena and sphalerite in veins, stringers and lenses. Breccia composed of argillite, quartzite and porphyry are common in the footwall of the structure. Other reported minerals include varying minor amounts of pyrite, chalcopyrite, tetrahedrite and rare pyrargyrite. The Big ore shoot consisted primarily of relatively clean galena. Ore mined in later years contained mixed sphalerite and galena with the former predominating. Quartz, calcite and siderite comprise the gangue mineralogy.

The controlling factors on mineralization are thought to be the extent of shearing, brecciation and faulting of hostrocks with the presence of porphyry playing a minor role.

The Standard was one the longest and most significant producers in the area. The first mill in the area was built for ore from the Standard occurrence. Production records indicate 746,235 tonnes were mined intermittently over 75 years, from 1894 to 1969. This ore yielded about 278 tonnes silver, 20 kilograms gold, 39,690 tonnes lead, 49,361 tonnes zinc and 61 tonnes cadmium. An additional 4356 tonnes of ore from the Standard occurrence were processed at the nearby Ottawa mill (National Mineral Inventory 082F14 Ag65).