The Kootenay Chief group is located at the head of Boyd and Silvertip creeks, approximately 19 kilometres northeast of Trout Lake. The group, consists of the Kootenay Chief (Lot 2147), Tamarcan Fraction (Lot 2151) and the Winnipeg (Lot 2150).

The Kootenay Chief group was first reported on in 1898. Work to 1899 included a 15-metre adit on the Kootenay Chief and a 9-metre adit on the Winnipeg claim. The three claims were Crown-granted in 1901 to A. Blackwood of Winnipeg. In 1917, Arthur Evans worked the property under lease and was reported to have about 19 tonnes of high-grade sliver-lead ore ready for shipment. Production records show that in 1918, 32,698 grams of silver and 12,965 kilograms of lead were recovered from 19 tonnes of ore.

The area is underlain by rocks of the Lower Cambrian Badshot Formation and Cambrian to Devonian Index Formation (Lardeau Group). White limestone, quartzite and phyllite are reported to belong to the Badshot Formation. Limy phyllite containing minor dark grey or black limestone is correlated with the Index Formation. The strata strikes between 130 and 140 degrees with steep dips ranging from 80 degrees southwest to 70 degrees northeast.

The white mineralized limestone bed on the Kootenay Chief is thinly-banded and about 15 metres thick. It is bounded on the northeast by rusty-weathering phyllites and on the southwest by about 35 metres of black phyllites. Alteration of limy formations to a dolomite-quartz rock is widespread. Quartz veinlets with related galena cut the dolomitic zones.

The ore from the Winnipeg is described as high grade galena and gray copper (tetrahedrite) averaging 20 centimetres in width.

During 2006 through 2009, Mineral Mountain Resources Ltd. completed programs of prospecting, geochemical (soil, silt, talus fines and rock) sampling and an airborne geophysical survey on the area as the Kootenay Arc property.