The Ward and Laura J. prospect is at approximately 2300 metres elevation on a sharp ridge that straddles the divide between Hall Creek, which flows to the northeast into the Duncan River and Healey Creek, which flows south into Lardeau Creek. The Ward (L.3479) and Laura J. (L.3478) tenures were originally clustered with those that host the Wagner [082KNW212] and Sheep Creek [082KNW050] prospects. The Laura J. crown grant is contiguous with, and on the southwest side of, the Princess Marie crown grant (L.3475).
There is very little known about the early history of the property, other than that the tenures were crown granted to W.T. Oliver and Associates, in 1900. They are an integral part of the Wagner [082KNW212] - Sheep Creek [082KNW050] camp and they were explored with these properties. The tenures were acquired by Bannockburn Resources Limited in about 1983, and were included in the Mikado Resources Limited joint venture agreement with Turner Energy and Resources Limited, in 1985. 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 Ward and Laura J. tenures are underlain by black, grey and green phyllite, slate and meta-tuff of the Index Formation. The rocks are folded and schistose. They have the pronounced, northwest trending, schistocity and a moderate dip to the southwest common to rocks in the Wagner Group area. In 1897, a narrow vein of silver-bearing galena similar to that found at the nearby Wagner [082KNW212] property was traced "for a considerable distance" along the steep face of some slate cliffs.
