The Golden Drip (L.539) occurrence is located west of Little Sheep Creek at an elevation of approximately 960 metres.
Regionally, the area is underlain by mudstone, siltstone, shale and fine clastic sedimentary rocks of the Carboniferous to Permian Mount Roberts Formation; basaltic volcanic rocks of the Lower Jurassic Elise Formation (Rossland Group) and trachytic volcanic rocks of the Eocene Marron Formation (Penticton Group). The sediments and volcanics have been intruded by syenitic to monzonitic rocks of the Eocene Coryell Plutonic Suite to the west and quartz monzonitic rocks of the Early Jurassic Rossland Plutonic Suite and granitic rocks of the Middle Jurassic Trail Pluton to the east.
The Golden Drip workings lie within greenstone and altered greenstone of the Lower Jurassic Elise Formation. These lie adjacent to the northern contact of a body of serpentinite, probably Permian, which trends east and probably dips steeply to the south. Many small shear zones along this contact suggest that it is an east-trending fault that is terminated by the Eocene Marron Group on the west and the Jumbo fault on the east.
The greenstone is very fine grained, dense and massive rock of dark-green to brownish hue. The original texture has been destroyed by both the development of chlorite and fibrous amphibole and by local silicification and serpentinization. It varies from a highly altered rock with small amounts of serpentine and magnetite to a mottled phase and then a phase that carries abundant, uniform serpentinite and magnetite. The typical massive serpentinite is a very dense black rock with cross-fibre asbestos infilling joints as 0.2- to 0.6-centimetre veinlets and light-green talc has developed in the immediate vicinity of the faults. The serpentinite is brown weathering and stands out as open outcrops with sparse vegetation on the Golden Drip claim and host coatings of green and locally bluish fibrous serpentine. Ten samples taken from the serpentinite exposed in the area assayed less than 0.24 per cent nickel (Bulletin 74).
Locally, workings follow discontinuous quartz carbonate veins or lenses that host free gold and local concentrations of pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena and sphalerite. The quartz veins are within the Rossland Group rocks and do not pass into the serpentinite.
The veins were mined between 1923 and 1939, producing approximately 184 tonnes of ore from which 5244 grams gold, 6843 grams silver, 39 kilograms copper and 186 kilograms lead were recovered. Between 1978 and 1982, 33 tonnes of ore were milled, producing 6784 grams gold, 4067 grams silver, 276 kilograms lead and 60 kilograms zinc.
The Golden Dip (L.539) occurrence has been mined and explored in conjunction with the nearby I.X.L. (MINFILE 082FSW116) past-producing mine since the late 1800s, with production occurring in the 1920s and 1930s. Underground workings on the Golden Drip (L.539) Crown grant consist of at least one or two adits and associated crosscuts with a further two adits and numerous trenches being reported to the southwest on the Golden Butterfly (L.1217) Crown grant.
In 1993 and 1994, Matovich Mining Industries Ltd. completed a program of geological mapping, a 15.0 line-kilometre ground magnetic survey and 16 diamond drill holes, totalling 2210.0 metres, on the area. In 1996 and 1997, Minefinders Corp. Ltd., on the behalf of Matovich Mining Industries Ltd., completed a program of underground rehabilitation, mapping and sampling and seven diamond drill holes, totalling 877.8 metres, on the area.
In 2005, West High Yield Resources Ltd. completed a program of geological mapping and a 11.2 line-kilometre ground magnetic survey on the area. In 2014 and 2015, ground self-potential and VLF-EM surveys were completed.
