The Copper Queen occurrence is located on west facing slopes over looking Lower Arrow Lake, approximately 2.4 kilometres north of La Forme Creek.
Regionally, the occurrence is hosted by Late Proterozoic or Early Paleozoic metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks. The occurrence is located in the eastern edge of the Omineca Tectonic Belt, within the Big Bend area of the Northern Selkirk Mountains. The Shuswap Complex is to the west, and the fold and thrust-fault belt of the southern Canadian Rockies is to the east. The Big Bend area and the Shuswap Complex are separated by the easterly-dipping, normal Columbia River fault zone. Stratigraphy in the Big Bend Area contains the Proterozoic aged rocks of the Horsethief Creek Group and Paleozoic aged rocks of the Hamill Group overlain by the Badshot Formation, sequentially overlain by metasedimentary, and metavolcanic rocks of the Lardeau Group. Intense deformation, metamorphism, and similar source lithologies make conclusions on a local scale difficult. The stratigraphic position of the occurrence has been suggested to lie in the Cambrian to Devonian, Upper Lardeau Group or near the base of the Jowett Formation (1999a) (MacIntyre, D. (2010-11-13): Technical Report Columbia Queen Property).
The area is underlain by a sericitic quartz-feldspathic rock, overlain by a succession of metamorphic volcanic rocks that include amphibolite, chlorite schist with interbedded thin beds of limestone. Overlying the meta-volcanic sequence are quartz-sericite schist, sericite schist and quartzite. A small plug of porphyritic biotite hornblende quartz monzonite intrudes the metamorphic rocks.
Locally, chalcopyrite, sphalerite and pyrite occurs as disseminations and lenses in the schistose limy meta-volcanics near the contact with the overlying quartz-sericite schist. The mineralization conforms to the schistosity which trends northwest and dips 22 to 26 degrees northeast with a maximum thickness of approximately 6 metres.
In 1966, Clearwater Mines completed 5 diamond drill holes, totalling 434.34 metres on the area as the S Group. Diamond drilling yielded intersections of copper and zinc mineralization, including from 51.8 metres to 62.5 metres and 68.6 metres to 82.3 metres averaging 0.6 and 0.47 per cent copper, respectively, in hole CQ-4. Hole CQ-5 was reported to assay from 0.45 to 1.14 per cent copper over 29.9 metres and a true width of 18.3 metres (Assessment Report 31823).
In 1968, Coldwater Mines completed a 3 hole diamond drill program. Diamond drilling intercepted 6.1 metres averaging 0.85 per cent copper (Assessment Report 23424).
In 1976, a soil and silt sampling program conducted by Kerr Addison Mines Ltd. defined a northwest-southeast trending coincident copper, zinc, and lead soil anomaly 600 metres in length. The Copper Queen showing was identified in a 6 metre thick layer of calcareous metavolcanic rocks with malachite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, and pyrite mineralization. Chip sampling from the same year yielded values up to 2.01 per cent copper, 0.56 per cent zinc and 18.9 grams per tonne silver over 2.34 metres (Assessment Report 6235).
In 1995, D.W. Tupper prospected the area as the Creelman 2 claim.
In 1999, Orphan Boy Resources Inc. and Crest Geological Consultants conducted an exploration program including soil and rock grab sample analysis. Rock samples yielded up to 0.65 grams per tonne gold, 5.15 per cent zinc, 0.218 per cent lead and greater than 100 grams per tonne silver and 9.99 per cent copper (Assessment Report 31823).
In 2010, Signature Resources Ltd. conducted an airborne geophysical survey over the entirety of the Columbia Queen property which hosts the occurrence. An area of anomalous conductivity occurs in the northeast corner, central portion, and the southeast region of the VTEM survey grid and property.
