The Francis Jewell prospect is at 2042 metres elevation at the head of Healy Creek, which flows south into the Lardeau River. It is immediately below the divide into the Hall Creek drainage, which is part of the Duncan River System. The Francis Jewell (L.3467). Jewell Fr. (L.3466), Lucille K. (L.3456) and Ema Fr. (L.3468) claims form a northwesterly trending tenure cluster that is roughly on strike to the northwest of the Abbott [082KNW056] claim group.
The tenures were staked in 1896, or earlier, and acquired under bond by Spokane interests. Work to 1898 included open cuts and a construction of a 12 metres long crosscut adit. The Jewell Fr., Ema Fr. and Lucille K. were crown-granted to C.T. Porter and Associates in 1900 and the Frances Jewell was crown-granted to L.C. Gilliam and Associates in 1901. The adit had collapsed by 1918. C.T. Porter is reported to have bonded the property to other interests in 1928 but there is no record of activity at that time.
Leadridge Mining Company Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of St. Joseph Lead Company of New York, held the property in 1949, along with the nearby Wagner [082KNW212], and trenched and diamond drilled both properties. Since then, the Francis Jewell appears to have been included with the Wagner Group in camp-scale exploration programmes. Mikado Resources Limited acquired the claims from the C.T. Porter Estate and other minority interest holders in 1985. That year, it established a joint venture with Turner Energy & Resources Limited on several adjacent properties and carried out trenching and sampling programmes. It later diamond drilled the Jewell vein and established a resource.
The Trout Lake area is underlain by a thick succession of sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Badshot Formation and Lardeau Group near the northern end of the Kootenay arc, an arcuate, north to northwest trending belt of Paleozoic and Mesozoic strata that is now classified as a distinct, pericratonic, terrane. The arc rocks are bordered by Precambrian quartzite in the east and they young to the west, where they are bounded by Jurassic-age intrusive complexes. They were deformed during the Antler orogeny in Devonian-Mississippian time and were refolded and faulted during the Columbian orogeny, in the Middle Jurassic. A large panel, the "Selkirk allochthon", was later offset to the northeast by dip-slip motion along the Columbia River Fault.
The Badshot Formation is composed of a thick Cambrian limestone that is a distinctive marker horizon in the Trout Lake area. It is underlain by Hamill Group quartzite and it is overlain by a younger assemblage of limestone, calcareous, graphitic and siliceous argillite and siltstone, sandstone, quartzite and conglomerate, and also mafic volcanic flows, tuffs and breccias, all of which belong to the Lardeau Group. The rocks are isoclinally folded and intensely deformed, but only weakly metamorphosed. They occur as intercalated beds of marble, quartzite and grey, green and black phyllite and schist. Fyles and Eastwood (EMPR BULL 45) subdivided the group into six formations (Index, Triune, Ajax, Sharon Creek, Jowett and Broadview) of which the lowermost (Index) and uppermost (Broadview) are the most widespread. The Triune (siliceous argillite), Ajax (quartzite) and Sharon Creek (siliceous argillite) are restricted to the Trout Lake area. The Jowett is a mafic volcanic unit.
The Francis Jewell property is underlain by deformed, isoclinally folded, northwest striking, southwest dipping calcareous, carbonaceous phyllite and phyllitic schist of the basal part of the Index Formation, and the upper part of the Badshot limestone. The mineralization is located in quartz-carbonate veins in phyllites and schists close to the limestone contact. The principal quartz vein may extend southeast from the Wagner [082KNW212] property. The vein is reported to be over 200 metres long and 3.6 to 4.5 metres wide. Dump samples show that it is a milky quartz vein containing phyllite fragments coarse, cubic, argentiferous-galena, some pyrite, sphalerite and possibly tetrahedrite. The vein contains vugs and clear quartz crystals that are commonly embedded in the galena. A "grab" sample collected in 1918 assayed 0.68 grams per tonne gold, 1193 grams per tonne silver and 4.8 per cent zinc. Mikado trenched the vein and a chip sample collected over 1.52 metres, in 1985, assayed 0.48 grams per tonne gold, 500 grams per tonne silver, 17.4 per cent lead and 1.37 per cent zinc (George Cross News Letter 28th October, 1985).
Indicated reserves at the Jewell zone are 64,846 tonnes grading 41.1 grams per tonne silver, 0.17 grams per tonne gold, 1.09 per cent lead and 9.49 per cent zinc (E. Brisbane to A. Legun (District Geologist, Nelson), personal communication 1988).
