The Thea 17 claim is located on the eastern slopes of Sommerfeld Mountain, approximately 25 kilometres south west of Moyie.

Regionally, the area is within the Purcell Anticlinorium, a geologic sub-province of the Omineca Tectonic Belt. The lowermost stratigraphic unit in this region is the MesoProterozoic Aldridge Formation and it hosts the Thea 17 gold prospect.

Locally, the Aldridge Formation is a thick succession of fine -grained clastic rocks of turbidite affinity and includes impure quartzites, siltstones and argillites. These rocks are intruded by slightly younger gabbroic and dioritic sills and dikes known as the Moyie intrusions.

A 'base metal' prospecting program in the mid-1990's discovered quartz breccia float with visible gold in an old clear cut on the Thea 17 claim. Two small trenches exposed the mineralized zone in late 1999 and a more extensive trenching program was conducted in 2002. Both trenching programs returned very encouraging gold values. This early trenching indicated a north-northwest–striking, steeply east-dipping zone of gold mineralized quartz vein breccia. In 2003, a limited soil geochemical survey of 144 samples was completed over the immediate area of previous trenching. Thirteen diamond drill holes (421.44 metres total) tested the area of earlier trenching and a series of excavator trenches extended the gold-mineralized zone to the southeast. Subsequently, in May and June of 2004, an additional 12 holes, totalling 825.41 metres, were drilled to trace the extension of the mineralized zone.

From 2003 to 2004, a program of drilling and trenching intersected a number of mineralized sections. For a complete listing refer to Assessment Report 27465.

In 2003, trenching returned up to 14.74 grams per tonne gold from a grab sample and 2.65 grams per tonne gold over a 1.2 metre section (Assessment Report 27465).

DDH T-03-2 intersected a weakly silicified breccia zone from 11.5 to 12.7 metres; immediately under the breccia a zone of fractured quartzite with thin limonitic quartz veinlets was encountered. A sample of this material returned 537 parts per billion gold over 1.0 metres. Two other drill holes, DDH T-03-2 and T-03-3, tested the same area, returning values up to 1316 and 1635 parts per billion gold, respectively (Assessment Report 27465).

DDH T-03-5, 11 metres to the east, intersected a 5 metre thick breccia/shear zone from 6.15 to 11.2 metres with gold values up to 5203 parts per billion over 0.60 metres (Assessment Report 27465).

DDH T-03-12, further to the east, intersected a weakly brecciated gabbro sill with thin quartz veins, specular hematite and disseminated pyrite. In this, an altered quartz vein breccia/shear zone was encountered from 47.5 to 48.65 metres, conforming with zones seen in holes to the west. This 1.15 metre zone averages 5064 parts per billion gold with the lowermost 0.5 metres at 8123 parts per billion gold (Assessment Report 27465).

In 2004, drilling returned values up to 4.154 grams per tonne gold over 1.05 metres, within a zone of 1.55 metres averaging 3.544 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 27465).