The Gold Cup occurrence is located on the southwest side of Mount Elise, at an elevation of approximately 1600 metres and approximately 6.5 kilometres north of the community of Ymir.

The area is underlain by metamorphosed Lower Jurassic Elise Formation (Rossland Group) porphyritic andesite (augite porphyry) and andesitic agglomerates, which have been intruded by granites of the Middle Jurassic Nelson Batholith.

Locally, quartz veins, usually 45 to 75 centimetres wide, crosscut the volcanics and, at lower levels, the granitic intrusive consisting of granite and augite porphyry schists, later described as a schistose augite porphyry. The veins generally strike 090 degrees with dips variable from steeply north to steeply south. The quartz gangue contains pyrite, chalcopyrite, bornite, covellite, tetrahedrite and rare native gold. Weathered zones also contain malachite, limonite, sericite and mariposite. Several lamprophyre dikes occur in east and northeast–striking tension fractures in the vicinity of the veins.

In 1914, a grab sample indicated values in the order of 20 grams per tonne gold and 145 grams per tonne silver (Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 94). No analysis for copper is reported.

In 1983, sampling (no. 3853) of mineralized quartz material from the dump yielded 10.7 grams per tonne gold and 23.3 grams per tonne silver (Property File - Kokanee Resources Ltd. [1983-07-15]: Report on the Gold Cup Group - Ymir).

In 1989, chip sampling of the south vein in the main zone yielded up to 7.7 grams per tonne gold, 11.3 grams per tonne silver and 0.076 per cent copper over 50 centimetres, whereas a sample of the north vein yielded 1.4 grams per tonne gold, 26.0 grams per tonne silver and 0.219 per cent copper over 25 centimetres (Property File - A.S. Greene [1989-05-25]: Summary Report and Proposed Exploration Program - Gold Cup Group). Also at this time, sampling of quartz lenses exposed in trenches located 50 metres to the south and 150 metres to the northeast yielded 1.1 and 0.9 grams per tonne gold, respectively (Property File - A.S. Greene [1989-05-25]: Summary Report and Proposed Exploration Program - Gold Cup Group).

The area has been explored since the early 1900s, with underground workings developed in 1903 and production of 24 tonnes producing 1244 grams of gold reported in 1925. Underground development included an adit with two drifts, a winze and a 28.5-metre shaft. A second 98-metre-long adit is reported approximately 520 metres to the northeast of the main workings on the Gold Cup No. 3 claim.

In 1981, Nithex Exploration and Development completed a program of soil sampling on the area. In 1983 and 1984, Kokanee Resources completed programs of prospecting and geochemical sampling. In 1987, Yellowjack Resources owned the property and completed a program of reconnaissance soil sampling. In 1989, Maple Leaf Ventures examined the area.

In 2000, Sultan Minerals Inc. collected a grab sample from the occurrence that returned a grade of 16.72 grams per tonne gold, 84.0 grams per tonne silver, and 0.21 percent copper (Giroux, G., Grunenberg, P. (2012-04-30): Technical Report on the Kena Property, Nelson, BC).

In 2012, Eagle Mapping Ltd. conducted an airborne LiDAR survey over a 15.3 square kilometre area of the Kena Property.